Recyling cost-benefit analysis
There is always the debate whether recycling is economically efficient and certain requirements have to met to make it economically feasible and environmentally effective. This includes an adequate supply of recyclable materials and capable reprocessing. Without a market to buy recyclables, it becomes a matter of collection only.
The prices of recycled waste took a dip in 2008. For example whereas cardboard averaged £53/tonne it dropped to £19/tonne, it has recovered since, but this is a volatile market which relies on demand and supply. For instance, the UK import a significant amount of wine in green bottles, but they don’t produce enough wine to use all the recycled glass.
In the same vein, because of the large amount of pulp mills in the Northwester USA, recycled paper has difficult in finding a market.
Environmental Effects
Economic analysis of recycling has taken into account such things as reduced hazardous waste leaking into landfills and has placed taxes and subsidies on businesses in an effort to get them to recognise the
Recycling aluminium results in a 95% energy saving and reduces air pollution by 95% while paper results in a 40% energy saving and reduced air pollution by 73%. In 2005, USA recycling resulted in a reduction of carbon emissions by a net 49 million metric tonnes.
And yet many of our products are not manufactured with recycling in mind, partly due to the high cost in manufacture and shipping. For instance the use of plastic food packing is preferred because cardboard is heavier to ship and it may result in food being spoiled during transport.
This entry was posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 9:42 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed.
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