The concept of waste recycling involves reusing resources that have already been used to create new products. Although recycled resources may not be as they were originally, they can still be reused for sustainability purposes.
Plastic is the most common recyclable generated daily, making plastic recycling a viable solution to Earth pollution. Plastic containers, including water bottles, beverage containers, milk bottles, and soap boxes, can be melted down and repurposed to create new products.
What is Waste Recycling?
In 1989, the Basel Convention defined waste recycling as a process of converting waste materials into new products to prevent the waste of potentially useful materials. This process can partly supplement the consumption of raw materials, reduce energy usage (almost 70% less energy is required in recycling), and reduce air pollution from incineration and water pollution from landfills by reducing the need for conventional waste disposal.
Waste recycling involves breaking down and reusing waste materials that would otherwise be discarded as trash. Recyclable materials include glass, aluminum, polyethylene, plastic water bottles, metal scrap, different kinds of paper, electronics (such as computers, cellular phones, keyboards, batteries, and other small electronic equipment), textiles, wood, wire, cables, plastic products, rubber, and more.
In addition to industrial recycling, organic waste such as food leftovers, leaves, twigs, and garden waste can also be decomposed by worms to produce fertilizers. There are numerous benefits to waste recycling, and with the emergence of green technology, even more materials can now be recycled.
Waste Management in Contemporary Economies
A fundamental part of the economic policy of modern economies is the strategic development of a green economy. This includes increasing environmental jobs, particularly in the areas of waste management, renewable energy, and water, by establishing new ecological enterprises and promoting eco-innovation.
However, economies face challenges and constraints in achieving sustainable development. The opening of markets and the liberalization of foreign trade result in high import dependence and non-equivalent exchange. Some countries consume twice as many resources as they have and import significant quantities of raw materials, fuels, metals, and food to meet the demands of production and consumption.
Imported products are associated with severe environmental impacts (more than half of the environmental impacts generated through domestic consumption are generated abroad). As a result, modern economies seek to reduce import dependence and focus on domestic production, primarily in the context of green growth.
The Impact of Globalization and Waste Management on Modern Economies
Globalization creates space for mass production, which encourages the development of countries like China and India. Growing competition, especially in consumer goods, leaves room for economies that can provide low-wage earnings and modern technological solutions for operations in the global market.
Waste management is an organized way of monitoring waste, energy, and other consumption, aimed at transferring the tax burden on waste users as an incentive to increase efficiency, green investments, and innovations in consumption. Troubleshooting the environment involves collaborating with stakeholders and interested parties to achieve coherence and complementarity in environmental protection and taxation reform.
Finding solutions to current and new waste management problems is not just a task for the state, but also for civil society, the market, and citizens who contribute to a sustainable society. Each part of the economic policy can implement environmental and waste management measures: eco-tax (fiscal policy), eco-innovation credits (credit-monetary policy), reduction of import taxes for organic products or simpler import procedures (trade policy), encouragement of green growth and eco-innovation (environmental protection), and waste recycling and other mechanisms (waste management policy).
Countries are trying to integrate waste policies into sector policies and other related policies to increase the sustainability of their economies.
Overview of Waste Management Impact Analysis in Contemporary Economies
The recycling process incorporates a wide range of activities that have a positive impact on the economy. Once a consumer uses and discards a recyclable material, it is collected, sorted, processed, and sold to end markets.
All of these actions are carried out with the aim of preparing the material for use as future feedstock for manufacturing purposes. After recyclable materials have been sufficiently processed to serve as feedstock, they are transported from the processor to a manufacturer.
The manufacturer then either feeds the recyclable material directly into the manufacturing process, further processes it before use, or mixes it with virgin material before manufacturing.
The traditional tool for estimating the economic impacts of activity within a region is the input-output model.
Input-output models replicate a region’s economy by estimating “the movement of products and services between industries, households, and governments.”
Economic impacts are estimated by manipulating these flows and observing the changes. The linking of these changes to a region’s economy is described as either direct, indirect, or induced impacts, as defined below:
- Direct Impacts: These represent changes in the expenditures or production of an industry or industries experiencing the change.
- Indirect Impacts: These represent the purchase of goods and services by the industry experiencing the change from other businesses in the regional economy. The input-output model also accounts for successive, iterative, backwards-linking expenditures by local industries.
- Induced Impacts: These reflect the spending (wages and salaries) of employees in the affected direct and indirect industries, assuming they live within the jurisdiction/community of operations.
The input-output model reports economic indicators for each type of impact as follows:
i. Waste recycling conserves energy, as recovered materials use less energy in the recycling plant compared to that needed for products obtained from virgin materials. This conservation occurs in terms of electricity or fuel.
ii. Waste recycling, if carefully and properly organized, can be a source of livelihood for unskilled workers in a developing country, as it creates employment.
iii. Waste recycling can be cost-beneficial to the economy of the nation by increasing the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
iv. If materials such as metals, paper, glass, and plastics are recovered from solid waste, they become a source of valuable raw materials to industries, thereby reducing foreign importation for countries dependent on those materials, while excess production could be exported.
v. Waste recycling reduces waste disposal costs.
vi. Waste recycling prevents the emission of excess greenhouse gases and water pollutants. It also helps to reduce greenhouse emissions that lead to global warming.
vii. Waste recycling reduces litter, which makes communities look untidy and thereby attracts more foreign investors to the communities.
Conclusion
With the incessant challenges posed by solid waste, especially plastic waste which has become a menace in our society and cannot be overemphasized, alongside the accelerated poverty rate that poses a serious threat, it is no doubt that the most efficient way of managing plastic waste is through recycling. Recycling has several potential benefits in various industries like construction and clothing, amongst many others. Therefore, the adoption of the various methods explained above would:
i. Reduce the quantity of plastic waste scattered in our streets and rivers.
ii. Create less dependency on the government for funds.
iii. Composite/construction materials developed from recycling plastic wastes are more durable and cheap.
iv. Be a platform for wealth creation.
For a functional and effective waste management system that will bring about economic thrive across all boards, recycling education across households and beyond will bring about behavioural change and public participation, hence ensuring our planet is preserved for future generations.
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