One of the long-term objectives of the European Union (EU) is to become a recycling and resource-efficient society that seeks to avoid waste and uses waste as a resource. Some EU countries have developed successful waste management systems by applying specific economic, ecological, administrative and other mechanisms. But there are also countries struggling with meeting the recycling targets caused by an inappropriate choice of policy mechanisms. Latvia, as an EU member state, has to comply with the targets set by the EU Directives. Up until now Latvia has managed to reach the targets of the packaging recycling rates set in Directives primarily from the collection and recovery of packaging waste in commercial and industrial sectors. A further increase in recycling rates, though, becomes challenging, since both of the sectors become more and more exhausted as a source of packaging waste to recycle. Therefore, in order to secure further compliance to the Directives households have to be involved. Consumption of primary packaging and its waste management are considered a single complex system. In order to develop a sustainable waste management system of the primary packaging it is necessary to understand the system’s dynamic behaviour created by the system’s actors and their interaction. One of the aims of system dynamics as a modelling method is expanding the borders of mental models. It allows seeing the complex feedback structure within the basis of the system under study. Whereas, a full understanding of the overall influence and feedbacks of the decisions made forms the basis of development of an effective policy strategy. The aim of this doctoral thesis is to develop a model for analysing the structure and dynamic behaviour of an integrated waste management system of the primary packaging and for determining the influence of various policy instruments on the system’s efficiency in terms of recycling rate. In this thesis, a system dynamics model is developed for analysing the dynamic behaviour of the integrated waste management system of the primary packaging and informing decision makers about it. The developed model allows understanding the integrated waste management system of the primary packaging and describing the system’s feedbacks. The model allows testing of alternative policy instruments aimed to increase the recycling and reuse rates of packaging waste. Results obtained in this thesis extend knowledge of the structure and behaviour of the waste management system of primary packaging. The model developed in the thesis can be used by decision makers, waste management companies, academics and researchers.