(Inspiration - link)
Are we recycling because it makes economic sense or because governments collectively decided it makes environmental sense? Those are not the same thing.
If recycling is commercially viable on its own, why does it require:
• PRNs
• PERNs
• pEPR
• modulated fees
• landfill tax
• ETS
• subsidies
• mandates
• recycled content laws
• export controls
• behavioural legislation
• DRS incentives
Historically, recycling existed because metals, paper, cloth and glass had some value. Modern day recycling however increasingly exists because landfill is politically toxic, carbon, resource security and public optics matter more than ever; and that’s a completely different economic model.
The more materials society attempts to recycle, the more expensive and technologically difficult recycling becomes which simply means that the final percentages of 'circularity' are often the least economically rational.
The recycling industry’s fear of PRN reform unintentionally reveals that parts of the system do not currently stand on their own economically but perhaps the future debate should become less about whether recycling is 'good' and more about which materials genuinely justify the energy, infrastructure, legislation and cost required to recover them because once an industry depends permanently on subsidies to function, it stops being purely a market and becomes a political choice. More like this (recycling) - link - more like this (DRS) - link - more like this (landfill) - link.
• PRNs
• PERNs
• pEPR
• modulated fees
• landfill tax
• ETS
• subsidies
• mandates
• recycled content laws
• export controls
• behavioural legislation
• DRS incentives
Historically, recycling existed because metals, paper, cloth and glass had some value. Modern day recycling however increasingly exists because landfill is politically toxic, carbon, resource security and public optics matter more than ever; and that’s a completely different economic model.
The more materials society attempts to recycle, the more expensive and technologically difficult recycling becomes which simply means that the final percentages of 'circularity' are often the least economically rational.
The recycling industry’s fear of PRN reform unintentionally reveals that parts of the system do not currently stand on their own economically but perhaps the future debate should become less about whether recycling is 'good' and more about which materials genuinely justify the energy, infrastructure, legislation and cost required to recover them because once an industry depends permanently on subsidies to function, it stops being purely a market and becomes a political choice. More like this (recycling) - link - more like this (DRS) - link - more like this (landfill) - link.
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