Publication

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

Résumé

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.

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Concepts associés (35)
Recyclage
Le recyclage est un procédé de traitement des déchets (industriels ou ménagers) de produits arrivés en fin de vie, qui permet de réintroduire certains de leurs matériaux dans la production de nouveaux produits. Les matériaux recyclables comprennent certains métaux, plastiques et cartons, le verre, les gravats Un exemple de ce procédé est la fabrication de bouteilles neuves avec le verre de bouteilles usagées, même si elle est considérablement moins efficace énergétiquement que le système des consignes.
Glass recycling
Glass recycling is the processing of waste glass into usable products. Glass that is crushed or imploded and ready to be remelted is called cullet. There are two types of cullet: internal and external. Internal cullet is composed of defective products detected and rejected by a quality control process during the industrial process of glass manufacturing, transition phases of product changes (such as thickness and color changes) and production offcuts. External cullet is waste glass that has been collected or reprocessed with the purpose of recycling.
Déchet
Un déchet est un objet en fin de vie ou une substance ayant subi une altération physique ou chimique, qui ne présente alors plus d'utilité ou est destiné à l'élimination. Le mot vient de l'ancien français déchiet ou déchié, soit « la quantité perdue dans l'usage d'un produit », ce qui en reste après son utilisation. Le déchet est de plus en plus considéré, au début du , comme un héritage problématique de la révolution industrielle et de l'urbanisation.
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