TY - JOUR

T1 - Material and money flows as a means for industry analysis of recycling schemes

T2 - a case study of regional bio-waste management

AU - Lang, Daniel Johannes

AU - Binder, Claudia R.

AU - Stauffacher, Michael

AU - Ziegler, Christian

AU - Schleiss, Konrad

AU - Scholz, Roland W.

N1 - Funding Information: The authors want to thank the respondents of the questionnaire survey and all experts involved for supporting the study with their time and knowledge; the anonymous reviewers for their comments that essentially improved the quality of the article; the members of the TCSR group at ETH for their critical comments; Heather Murray and Lisa Halsall for editing the text; and AWEL Amt für Abfall, Wasser, Energie und Luft [Environmental Agency] of Canton Zurich for funding the study as part of a cooperative project with the Institute of Human-Environment Systems at ETH Zurich.

PY - 2006/12/1

Y1 - 2006/12/1

N2 - In most industrialized countries the recycling of waste materials has increased considerably over the last few decades; however, through a focus on how to increase the amount of recycled waste, the economic nature of recycling has sometimes been neglected. This paper proposes an integrative industry analysis for recycling schemes based on material and money flows. The latter analysis facilitates integrating economic characteristics into considerations with respect to recycling schemes in order to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of their current status as well as their historical developments. Thereby, the analysis departs from the perspective of the entire recycling industry or branch. Such meso-economic considerations can support, on the one hand, regional authorities in deciding how a recycling scheme should be handled in order to approach the overall goal of sustainable regional waste management and, on the other hand, the respective recycling industry to develop effective improvement strategies in order to succeed in the increasingly competitive regional waste markets. The proposed approach is utilized in a case study for centralized separate bio-waste transformation in Canton Zurich, Switzerland, to show its feasibility as well as its potentials and shortcomings. In the case study two quasi-stationary material and money flow analyses were calculated, and the profitability and competitiveness of the recycling industry were analyzed. Additionally, major consumers’ requirements with regard to the solid transformation products were investigated in a questionnaire survey (N = 102). The case study shows that the proposed methodological approach is appropriate for integrating economic considerations into a comprehensive analysis of a recycling industry and for deriving potential improvement strategies for this industry. For achieving robust decisions for regional material flow management, the approach contributes in three highly relevant ways: (i) it integrates different system perspectives (e.g., material flows, consumer requirements, and money flows), (ii) it examines waste management comprehensively (e.g., inclusion of different waste management options), and (iii) it is transparent for the responsible decision makers and the affected stakeholders.

AB - In most industrialized countries the recycling of waste materials has increased considerably over the last few decades; however, through a focus on how to increase the amount of recycled waste, the economic nature of recycling has sometimes been neglected. This paper proposes an integrative industry analysis for recycling schemes based on material and money flows. The latter analysis facilitates integrating economic characteristics into considerations with respect to recycling schemes in order to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of their current status as well as their historical developments. Thereby, the analysis departs from the perspective of the entire recycling industry or branch. Such meso-economic considerations can support, on the one hand, regional authorities in deciding how a recycling scheme should be handled in order to approach the overall goal of sustainable regional waste management and, on the other hand, the respective recycling industry to develop effective improvement strategies in order to succeed in the increasingly competitive regional waste markets. The proposed approach is utilized in a case study for centralized separate bio-waste transformation in Canton Zurich, Switzerland, to show its feasibility as well as its potentials and shortcomings. In the case study two quasi-stationary material and money flow analyses were calculated, and the profitability and competitiveness of the recycling industry were analyzed. Additionally, major consumers’ requirements with regard to the solid transformation products were investigated in a questionnaire survey (N = 102). The case study shows that the proposed methodological approach is appropriate for integrating economic considerations into a comprehensive analysis of a recycling industry and for deriving potential improvement strategies for this industry. For achieving robust decisions for regional material flow management, the approach contributes in three highly relevant ways: (i) it integrates different system perspectives (e.g., material flows, consumer requirements, and money flows), (ii) it examines waste management comprehensively (e.g., inclusion of different waste management options), and (iii) it is transparent for the responsible decision makers and the affected stakeholders.

KW - Sustainability sciences, Communication

KW - consumer survey

KW - industry analysis

KW - material flow analysis

KW - money flow analysis

KW - separate bio-waste transformation

KW - sequential integrative approach

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33749437433&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/e8ff7fcf-fed3-3aed-ada7-235e3ee4661b/

U2 - 10.1016/j.resconrec.2006.03.013

DO - 10.1016/j.resconrec.2006.03.013

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 49

SP - 159

EP - 190

JO - Resources, Conservation and Recycling

JF - Resources, Conservation and Recycling

SN - 0921-3449

IS - 2

ER -