ECONOMICS OF RECYCLING :

A THEORETICAL F-WORK
3.0 Recycling is a method of materials management in which

discarded materials are separated from waste and processed to

acceptable standards to re-enter the economy as usable products (Bisio

and Boots, 1996). Thus, the waste materials are put to reuse through

recycling, which would otherwise go as waste. The reckless use of

resources leads to generation of different types of wastes in an increased

volume. An ecosystem cannot absorb these wastes in a natural way and

the prevailing control mechanism by disposal in landfill or by

incineration have great impact on the environment.

The introduction of the approach of re-use and recovery by

recycling not only reduces the threat to the environment but also

facil~tates conversion of waste into value added products. Hence

recycling comes to the forefront of solid waste management options.

The importance of recycling can be explained with the help of a figure

given below.
 Figure 3.1 Importance of recycling

I Natural Environment

RECYCLED

RESIDUALS DISCHARGED

MATERlALS
RESIDUAL3
CONSUMERS DISCHARGED

.~
Source. Barry-C-field, 1997 RECYCLED

Producers and consumers draw raw materials from the nature,

after their economic activity residuals are thrown into environment. The
application of recycling prior to discharging could convert a major
portlon of waste into usable raw materials for further production process
and also reduce the volume of final disposal to nature. So a nation which
is unable to recycle used materials will not be able to sustain itself.
Besides, it is clear that single use of some of the important materials like
metals, glass and paper would lead to scarcity of such materials as their
stocks would get exhausted with in a short span. In this context the
urgency of recycling is mooted and waste is no longer conGdered as
waste but a resource.
3.1 Reasons for Recycling

All commodity production is the application of labour and capital

to materials extracted from the environment to transform them into
useful products. When materials are extracted and processed, large
amounts of unwanted materials are separated and returned to the
environment. When final commodities lose their economic value
through consumption they also return to the environment or recycled
back into the production process (Mills,1980). The principle of
'materials balance' stated that, material extraction from the environment
is equal to the discharges plus capital accumulation. This can be clear
with a simple mass balance equation.

TM - Total materials used by an economy

VM - Virgin materials
RM - Recyclable materials

This mass balance tells that all materials taken from the economic
system must end up in some form in the environment (Field, 1997). As
the availability of virgin materials are scarce in the environment, it is
necessary to recycle the used materials to reduce the excessive
exploitation of virgin materials.

Recycling is not a new idea, it is considered as the most important

component of a waste management system both in the developed and
developing countries. The resource constraint developing countries
cannot afford to call any material as waste, due to this resource
stringency several materials get recycled. Man has always attempted to
recycle usable materials from waste in many diverse ways. The higher
disposal costs, the market pressures and increasing scarcity of virgin
materials create a larger demand for recycling. The following are
considered as the main reasons for recycling.

1. The recycling of waste to recover useful materials save valuable

resources and postpone the consumption of virgin goods (Waite,
1995). Moreover recycling avoids the environmental damage
associated with the extraction and processing of primary resources.

2. Recycling reduces the amount of waste that requires disposal. The

new understanding of the impacts of landfills and incineration on
ground water and air media also created social pressure for
increased regulation on waste disposal. Less disposal means fewer
disposal sites and where they already exist their useful life can be
prolonged.

3. The recycling of waste materials can generate significant energy

saving compared with the production of the equivalent volume of
virgin materials.
4. Recycling is also presented as a strategy for economic development
by way of creating more jobs and industries in the urban areas
where waste materials are more prevalent. It is a labour intensive
activity involving sorting and processing of waste materials,
thereby money spent on recycling leads to more employment than
the same amount spent on garbage disposal.

5. Another reason for recycling is that it provides a domestic source

of materials (Abert, 1983). Thereby, recycling conserve exhaustible
resources, this reduces the dependency on import of mineral and
other resources from abroad.

6. The community based recycling and waste reduction is also

considered as a means to attain regional development for
develop~ng countries through self sufficient sustainable local
communities.

Apart from these reasons there are so many other benefits for
recycling. All these benefits can be summarised into three major heads
as environmental, economic and social reasons for recycling. A
comprehensive depiction of these reasons is given in appendix 3.1.

3.2 Formal and Informal System of recycling

Human beings pursue recycling tmnds on a regular basis for

various forms of wastes generated and the resource recovery is
becoming an integral part of efficient waste management system. The
recycling of solid waste mainly consists of formal and informal system
of recycling. Generally, the concerned local authority controls the
formal system; they are responsible for collection, transportation and
processing of the generated waste. The formal waste management is
done through numerous means, for instance compost from garbage,
products from fly ash, cattle feed from waste food and so on. Normally
this system manages mainly kitchen and food wastes which are organic
and biodegradable in nature. The successhl functioning of this system
requires co-ordination of various governmental depamnents and huge
expenditure. So most of the local bodies do not introduce waste
recycling In normal case and it has been treated as a private good except
during emergency.

The informal sector deals with items like metal, glass, leather,
paper and plastics by focusing on the recovety of recyclable materials
from the waste stream mainly of non biodegradable products, on which
the livelihood of thousands of citizens' depends. This sector provides
employment to a wide range of people from the poorest of the poor in
urban areas represented by waste pickers, itinerant buyers, petty traders,
entrepreneurs and workers involved in manufacturing new products
from recycled materials. The waste collectors are often the primary
agents of salvaging the recyclable waste, they collect waste from
residential areas and from all public areas of the city. They retrieve
valuable materials from municipal waste before formal sector begins its
work and reduce the volume and content of solid waste to be handled by
formal system. It is considered that the amount of waste managed by
waste collectors come to 40-60 percent of the total waste generated.

Informal waste collection is mainly undertaken by two groups -

waste pickers and itinerant buyers. Waste pickers collect paper, plastic,
metal, glass and anything that fetches a market value. Itinerant buyers
purchase small quantities of scrap from residential areas and commercial
establishments. They access small amounts of capital. Some of them
barter finished products in exchange of waste materials from residences.
The items purchased by Itinerant buyers are of relatively better quality
and have market value than those collected by waste pickers. Some
buyers have specific beats which they traverse regularly and establish
relations with housewives. By this means housewives also play an
important role in informal waste management system by sorting out and
keeping recyclable goods for selling to itinerant buyers.

After a rudimentary sorting of collected wastes, the waste

collectors sell it to retailers. In our country most cities and towns have
retailers and wholesalers to deal with different kinds of recyclable scrap
goods. The purchased items of retailers are W e r sorted and graded as
it moves progressively through various trade channels till it reaches to
small and large industries which use them in various proportions to
substitute for virgin materials in their production process.

As in other informal sector occupations, waste collectors are also

dispersed and unorganised. It attracts residual people such as
agricultural migrants, environmental refugees, cobblers and other
unemployed poor, whose traditional skills have become outdated in the
rapidly changing economic activity. The link of different actors in the
informal sector of waste recyclirlg is depicted In figure 3.2. The resource
recovery with the help of informal recycling is considered as the
environmentally sound option for conserving natural resources and
decreasing the pollution caused by solid waste. Then, it is needed to
acknowledge the value of informal system and its workers, to integrate
them into the total scheme of solid waste management as they do an
invaluable service to our society.

Figure 3.2 Link of informal sector recycling

Recyclable

materials MICMIS

l t ~ r r n n Buy-
l
3.3 Stages of Recycling

The combination of more waste, fewer places to dispose it and

increasing demand for recyclable and recycled materials contributed
much to the rising popularity of recycling. What is now being discarded
may become valuable in future. Further, proper handling and recycling
provide energy and lower the waste burden on the natural environment.
The eventual success of recycling depends not only on successful
collection of recyclable materials but also on processing and finding
buyers for the recycled materials.

Recycling is a system in which a number of inter-related

processes occur in sequence, each recyclable material has its own
physical and chemical attributers which give it a unique set of processes.
The concept of recycling cycle in most of the countries would be more
or less same as it is applied to waste materials with slight modifications.
The 'three chasing arrows' symbol created by the American paper
institute (American Forest Products Association.1993) demonstrates the
process of recycling. It is given in figure 3.3.

Figure 33. The recycling cycle

- - -

Pmduct nuchaqe. use and d~scard

~ ~ ~
/~
'\
.--------
f ~ ~ t , Collectinn
& ~ and nmcesqinn
 72

At the first stage of the cycle, the product enters the economy and

is purchased by individuals, institutions or other manufacturers. Once

purchased, the consumer makes use of the product and discards the

residuals for further handling. The discarded materials are collected and

processed in some way to add value and conform to the standards of a

manufacturer or other customer. In the final stage the recyclable item

has been transformed into a commodity. It may be used as a product in

its own right or as a raw material in the manufacture of a good to enter

in the market place and potentially the cycle begins again.

The complete recycling loop is actually a complex process

involving a number of stages and interconnections. Generally the stages

of recycling are classified into collection, processing and reprocessing.

The recycling trials have to focus pnmarily on the methods of collection

and to a lesser degree on the subsequent processing operations. At the

same time while considenng recycling a thrust is given to marketing of

these recycled products, and identifying the requirements of these

markets, which will give the proper direction for collection, processing

and reprocessing of waste. Following collection, the mixture of

materials needs to be separated, this activity is known as processing. In

the first two stages of recycling, materials are merely handled, but in the
 73

third stage there happens a physical change of material to produce a

recycled material. A schematic outline of these stages of recycling are

depicted in figure 3.4.

Figure 3.4. Stages of recycling

GENERATION OF WASTE

1
I COLLECTION
1
1
Waste Pickers Itinerant buyers

1
PROCESSING
1
1
Sub dealers
1
Dealers

v
DISPOSAL
v 1REPROCESSING
1
1
Market for Recycled material ' .
33.1 Collection options for recycling

The motivation for recycling is already built in us, but instead of

this the vast increase of population, emergence of affluence production
or consumption per capita and poverty of the people have contributed
much to the culture of recycling. In order to function the recycling
system there must be a consistent and reliable source of recyclable
materials. This supply side is the first of many process sequences in
recycling. A good number of recycling initiatives had been damaged or
could not get off the ground because of the failure to achieve a viable
and economical collection system.

The rag pickers and itinerant buyers collect wastes from

households and garbage dumps for recycling. This activity reduces the
burden of municipal system and provides employment and income to a
large number of people. Among the many types of waste picking the
lowest strata consists the 'internal rag plckers' who roam the streets
looking for discards that has an intrinsic value to them. Another type of
ragpicking takes place at the disposal site. In the recent system of
collection the itinerant buyers also play an important role. Apart from
these waste collection activities, there are some other initiatives like
deposit refund system, drop of recycling centres, voluntary container
buy back system, reverse venting machines and so many other practices
facilitating collection of recyclable materials.
33.2 Processing for recycling

After collection, the mixture of recovered materials needs to be

separated for further reprocessing. This sorting activity is called as

processing for recycling. The most commonly used term for sorting is

the American description of 'Materials recovery facility' (Waite, 1995).

The objective of this stage is to achieve an effective separation of

commingled materials into each one of the individual materials for

further production or use in recycling procedure. The main operations of

processing include, identification and separation of individual items

from collected waste, removing the contaminants and cleaning the

required materials and packing them for easier handling and

transportation. Recently some part of the processed items re-enter into

consumer stream through second hand markets. There is scope for

further study in this area.

The figure 3.5 demonstrates the range of materials which can

arise from a mixed waste stream in the form of material hierarchy. The

hierarchy identifies the levels to which the mixed materials can be

sorted in a recovery facility with initial levels as the simplest degree of

separation and with highest levels with most complex degree of

separation and so on.

 Fig. 3.5 Material hierarchy in processing stage

OCC NCC HDPE LDPE

 Level 1 and 2 in the hierarchy illustrate the degree of sorting
required to separate the basic components of mixed recyclable materials.
Level 3 requires a greater effort to sort the mixed material. The material
obtained at level 3 and 4 are supplied directly to reprocessing stage of
recycling. The value of processed material depends upon the level and
quality of separation and the general market conditions. Generally three
basic types of sorting are used for separation of materials viz. manual
sorting, manual combined with automated sorting and fully automated
sorting. Manual sorting is considered as the simplest method and has the
advantage of being able to achieve a high degree of separation and a
high quality with relatively low capital investment. But it has the
disadvantage of high labour intensive process and growing concerns
regarding the health and safety aspects of manual sorting.

3.3.3 Reprocessing of Recyclables

In the first two stages of recycling, materials are merely handled

and sorted into individual components, but in the third stage of recycling
the recyclable material is undergoing a physical change into a recycled
material. The validity of recycling then depends upon the remaking or
conversion process. In the reprocessing stage the waste material
discarded by the end user is remoulded into a useful commodity to re-
enter into the consumption cycle again.

Ln recent years the process of recycling has become highly

sophisticated witb the introduction of technologies. But at the same time
the trend of recycling is in an increasing order due to the scarcity of
virgin materials and people's awareness of material conservation. The
process of substitution of secondary materials for virgin materials by
recycling is now in a controversy concerning the choice of technology,
as different materials require different types of technologies.

3.4 Markets for Recycling

The markets for recyclable and recycled materials is a key

determinant of the economic viability of recycling schemes and viability
is a function of the cost of setting up and running the process of
recycling. The recyclable material has resource value, some of this value
IS captured through the collection and processing practiced in the
informal sector, and some through reprocessing and final conversion of
waste into usable materials, energy or both. The market is then
considered as the starting point as well as the end stage of recycling.

The markets for recycling can be classified into two different, but
inter-related markets, known as markets for recyclable materials and
market for recycled materials. The recyclable materials are demanded
by the reprocessing industries as raw materials for their production
process. The dealers and sub dealers are considered as the sellers of
recyclable items to reprocessing units. The lowest strata of recyclable
market consist of the waste collectors as sellers and the dealers as the
buyers of the market. In the next stage of market mechanism sub dealem
 work as sellers and wholesale dealers as buyers. From the lowest strata
to the highest strata of market the price of the materials gets added
throughout each stage with cleaning and sorting by processors and by
demand factor from reprocessing industries.

Reprocessors convert the recyclable material either into a

recycled product, which can be sold directly to the consumer or into a
secondary raw material which is used by product manufacturers to
produce a final product. The classification of these two markets is
illustrated in figure 3.6.

Figure 3.6 Markets for recyclable and recycled materials

Manufacture
Recyclable Recyclable
Materials Materials

i
Market for Recyclable materials
L
Market for Recycled materials

Based upon the market demand the existing markets for

recyclable materials may be divided into strong demand market,
capacity limited demand market, and emerging demand .market.
Recently price fluctuations are seen in recyclable market. Scrap prices
are usually up when production is expanding and prices are down when
unemployment is high and production is declining. Some industries
prefer virgin materials and turn to scrap markets only as a last resort
when virgin material supply is not adequate to meet production demand.
The fluctuations are made more complicated by the role of foreign
markets, as through liberalisation more recyclable wastes are imported
from other countries.

The promotion of consumer demand for recycled product

provides the lifeblood for the existence of the process of recycling.
Some instruments like, taxation of virgin materials, subsidy to the
processors of recycled materials and regulations to govern the qualities
of recycled material are considered to raise the demand for recycled
products. But at the same time prejudices and misconceptions about the
quality of recycled materials remain a significant barrier for the
expansion of the market for recycled materials. Through the process of
education and awareness the consumers can be encouraged to purchase
recycled products, this gives economlc momentum to the recycling
industry.

3.5 Levels of Recycling

Solid wastes may be recycled if one of the two cost categories rises
beyond an economic level. One cost category is that of material cost,
which rises due to scarcity or due to distance from production sites or due
to imposition of taxes. The second category of cost is that incurred for
disposal, which depends on the nature of wastes, location where waste is
generated and regulations imposed upon disposal practices. In general
materials of high unit cost have been recycled, because the recycling
costs are usually lower than the cost of buying and refining virgin
materials. If the goods are very valuable, they would not be considered as
waste (Sterner, 1999) gold is a good example. The low unit cost
substances have been recycled only when disposal costs are high either
because of antipollution regulations or because of non availability of
disposal sites within the reach of economical transportation.

Mere collection of recyclable materials does not constitute a

recycling program, the complete program requires the collection,
reprocessing and final consumption of produced commodities ( Allman
in Boland (ed), 1997). The recyclable waste stream can be divided into
dry recyclables and organic wastes. Both categories of waste may be
recycled as material, but the methods are quite different. Withln recycling
further levels can be defined as primary, secondary and tertiary recycling.
Primary recycling use the recyclable products to make the same or similar
products. In secondary recycling new products are made with less
stringent specifications than the original. Tertiary recycling is the
recovery of chemicals or energy from waste materials (LeidnerJ981).

Primary recycling indicates simple process' like

regrinding, re-extrusion or remaking of same or similar products from
recyclable materials. Examples include the use of aluminium cans to
make new cans, glass pieces into new glass bottles and so on. This
recycling is considered atleast partially a closed loop process and should
be regarded as having a higher value than secondary recycling. From an
environmental standpoint the primary recycling of material displaces the
need for the extraction of virgin resources and can reduce the
accompanying energy consumption and pollution generated during the
extraction period.

Secondary recycling employs chemical and thermal methods to

make new products with less rigorous specifications than the original
recyclable materials. In secondary recycling some other chemicals are
added into the production process and sometimes products are upgraded
by the addition of virgin materials. Thereby secondary recycling
produces some externalities and at the same time the new products are
of low quality products.

The recovery of chemicals or energy from waste materials is

known as tertiary recycling. In this mechanism chem~calor thermal
technologies are employed to decompose wastes to chemicals and fuels.
This tertiary mechanism generates raw materials and energy for further
production activities, at the same time it creates residuals a n d - ~ l a t e d
pollution problems, hence tertiary recycling needs better management of
technology, plant size and location of activity.
 The levels o f recycling can be schematically shown in figure 3.7.

Figure 3.7 Levels of Recycling

Wastes
News paper,
Note books,
bottles,
plastics etc Reprocessors

Papers
packing
materials recovery centres
bottles and
reusable
products f
Dealers
I

damaged
plastics
recyclable
I items
I
Recycled products

-I u
Primary Secondary Tertiary
3.6 The cost of Recycling

The economic limits of recycling are dominated by two factors,

the cost of collection and processing of the materials for recycling and
the markets for the resulting recycled materials (Bowers, 1997). Under
the formal mechanism the local authority spends more on solid waste
management than on air and water pollution. The major categories of
cost include the costs for collection, transportation and disposal of waste
materials. The collection phase of solid waste management constitute a
major chunk of overall costs, as collection is a labour intensive activity
and the extensive use of compactor vehicles for collection leads to an
increase in collection cost. The common methods employed to process
and dispose wastes in formal system are incineration and land disposal.
lnclneration technology is adopted in areas where land costs are high or
suitable disposal sltes are not available at short distance. Incineration
incurs large capital ~nvestmentsand a relatively high operating cost.

Land filling is the most commonly used method for disposal of

solid waste under formal system. Recently urban populations and the
intensity of land use have increased. Many local bodies realise that
disposal costs are increasing rapidly as land availability diminishes and
other pollution control measures are tightened. Apart from the costs
incurred for collection, transportation and disposal of waste. the society
bear some other costs in the fonn of external costs associated with
landfill disposal.

The introduction of recycling implies differences in the concept of

cost of waste management. Garbage collection and disposal costs are
now calculated as avoided costs and instead there emerges new costs for
recycling in the form of collection and processing costs, which are
considered as the direct cost of recycling. Generally the cost of recycling
can be categorised into collection costs, processing costs and
reprocessing costs.

3.6.1 Informal collection costs

The collection cost of recycling comprise the expenses incurred

for collecting the recyclable items, expenditure incurred for transporting
the collected material to the market and other expenses incurred by the
waste collectors in the form of operational costs of collection. The
capital expenditure includes cost of land for drop off sites, cost of
collection vehicles and containers and other equipment associated with
collection of recyclable items.

The itinerant buyers barter some finished materials in exchange of

recyclable items to the households and the cost incurred for purchasing
these materials also come under the collection cost category. T4e total
collection cost is then the sum of collection expenses and the
depreciation on the capital cost of collection. Generally, the collection of
recyclable material is a labour intensive activity, hence the operational
cost of collection is the highest part of collection cost than the capital
cost of collection of recyclable materials.

3.6.2 Informal Processing Costs

Processing of recyclable materials is undertaken by sub dealers,

dealers and sometimes material recovery facilities. The expenditure
incurred by these chains of activities is known as processing cost of
recycling. The wages and salaries paid to workers engaged in sorting of
waste, rent for buildings, power consumption charges, maintenance and
repair charges, the promotional expenses etc are considered as the
revenue expenses of processing of recycling. In developed countries
through the introduction of sophisticated instruments for sorting, the
processing becomes a capital intensive activity.

3.63 Reprocessing cost of Recycling

Reprocessing cost is reflected in the market price of materials

offered by the reprocessing industries. Reprocessing is the most
sophisticated activity in the recycling process, which requires high
capital investment, more energy and sometimes virgin materials to
upgrade the quality of recycled materials. The cost of reprocessing is the
sum of all capital depreciation charges incurred for repro~essing~activity
and the revenue expenditure incurred for the workers and other
maintenance expenses.
 All the costs discussed above are linked with an inversely
proportional relationship. The greater the degree of separation at
collection stage greater the cost of collection but lower the cost of
processing. When the collection and processing costs are lower the
intensity and quality of separation is lower which results in higher
reprocessing cost. But generally an optimum degree of separation is
maintained at collection and processing stage which leads to a
reasonable reprocessing costs.

3.7 Indirect cost of Recycling

The introduction of recycling leads to a reduction in the cost of

refuse collection and waste disposal of formal system of waste
management. Therefore the cost incurred for recycling is considered as
the abatement cost of waste management of formal sector. Apart from
the direct cost of recycling, it generates some environmental problems.
The major among them are the health hazards caused to waste collectors
and the emissions occurring at processing and reprocessing stage of
recycling. All these are known as indirect cost of recycling.

During picking and sorting of waste materials from the heaps of

garbage, waste collectors are prone to different types of contagious
diseases and there are chances for injury and other types of health
hazards. In our country, generally the medical wastes are mixed with
municipal waste for dumping and this practice adds fiuther havoc to the
waste collectors. During recovery and reprocessing stage of recycling
some chemicals are released into the atmosphere, which adversely
affects the human health and welfare. It is very difficult to enumerate
these externalities caused by recycling in monetary terms, but they incur
a significant loss of welfare to human society.

3.8 Revenue from Recycling

After discussing the costs of recycling another topic which needs

equal importance of discussion is the revenue part of recycling. The
major portion of revenue is generated by the sale of recycled materials
to consumers and producers. The economic viability of recycling is
calculated by comparing the revenue and cost of recycling.

Apart from the revenue generated from recycled markets, there

are some other benefits for recycling process, which are the
postponement of the use of virgin materials, avoided waste disposal
costs, reduction in externalities of littering and creation of more
employment opportunities in trash collection and processing activities.
Moreover, the environmental benefits that are derived from the
recycling are self evident and would be difficult to quantifj. in economic
terms.

The advocates of recycling assume that the avoided costs.pf land

filling and incineration play a major role in the economics of recycling
programs (Ackerman, 1997). Recycling also reduces the time spend for
garbage collection (Stevens, 1978). In upshot the revenues of recycling
are the sum total of the direct revenue earned by waste collectors,
dealers and industries engaged in the process of recycling and the
indirect benefits in the form of creation of more employment
opportunities, substitution of extraction of virgin materials, reduction of
disposal costs, avoided cost of externalities of land filling and reduction
of dependency of imports of vlrgin materials. All these revenues in the
form of benefits justify the recycling of solid waste materials.

3.9 Optimum level of Recycling

Recycling is considered economically efficient if the resources

used in the process of recycling do not exceed the resources saved by
recycling. In some cases, more resources are used in recycling than the
value and quality of the recycled products, which 1s justified by the
environmental damage resulting from land disposal or incineration of
that material. When recycling targets are set it is necessary to balance
the rnarglnal costs and benefits of recycling lnorder to determine the
optimum level of recycling.

The benefits from recycling should be balanced against the cost

associated with recycling, such as costs incurred for the separation of
recyclable materials, costs associated with processes involved in
recycling and other external costs resulting from recycling (Pearce and
Brisson, 1994). Thus the condition for optimum recycling is
Where,
PR- Price o f recycled material
CD- Marginal avoided cost of disposal
Cm - Marginal environmental avoided cost of disposal
Csc - Marginal cost o f separation and collection
CR- Marglnal financial cost of recycling
C w - Marginal environmental cost o f recycl~ng
The left hand side of the equation is the benefit of recycling and
the right hand side is the cost of recycling. Then the optimum level of
recycling is attained where marginal benefit is equal to marginal cost of
recycling, in simple form. Where

This optimum is diagrammatically represented in figure 3.8.

Figure 3.8 Optimum level of recycling

 The optimum level of recycling is at Point R, where the marginal
cost of recycling to prevent environmental damage is equal to marginal
benefit of recycling. This point also corresponds to the minimum total
cost of preventing environmental damage by the introduction of a better
management hierarchy of solid waste management options.

3.10 Recycling Performance

The degree of recycling as an economic alternative to other

disposal methods vary from area to area due to factors like nature of
dwelling, cost of alternative disposal methods and market conditions for
the recycled materials. (Greppi, 1994). The degree of recycling can be
measured by using the following criteria based on the material collected,
the total weight of waste generated and the weight of targeted material
generated over a penod of time.

3.1 0.1 Collection Rate

The key measure of performance of any recycling scheme is the

amount of material which is diverted from the normal disposal route to
recycling. The term recycling rate which is usually expressed in
percentage is used to denote the actual diversion of waste stream for the
purpose of recycling and it denotes the performance of recycling.

lnorder to measure the performance, it is needed to defmbthe size

of the waste stream with which a given recycling scheme is associated.
Waste stream is defined as the total amount of waste generated by the
households and institutions of a particular locality. The collection rate of
recycling can be calculated, with the help of the total weight of waste
generated and amount of material collected. It is defined as the ratio of
weight of material collected for recycling to total weight of waste
generated, i.e.

Weight of material collected for recycling

Collection rate =
Total weight of waste generated

3.10.2 Diversion rate

When the measurement is taken after the collection and

processing, the resulting performance criteria is known as diversion rate
of recycling. This measure had greater importance because it not only
measures the quantity of material collected for recycling, but also
indicates the quality of that materials. Out of the total waste matenals
collected, processing stage selects only those materials which are
suitable for reprocessing. Then diversion rate for recycl~ngis expressed
as the ratio of the weight of material collected and processed In
recycling to total weight of waste generated, i.e.

Weight of material collected and processed

Diversion rate =
Total weight of waste generated
When the diversion rate is used to measure the performance of
recovery scheme, it is defined as,

Amount of material diverted

Diversion rate for recovery = Total weight of waste generated
3.10.3 Potential diversion rate

In targeted materials recycling programs it is designed to collect

only certain materials like metal cans, news paper, plastics and so on.
With the help of the measures of the quantity of targeted materials in the
waste stream it is possible to find out the potential diversion rate for
recycling. It measures the performance of recycling of an item of waste
stream and is defined as the

Weight of targeted material generated

Potential diversion rate =
Total weight of waste generated

With the help of divers~onrate and potential diversion rate, it is

easy to find out the effectiveness of diversion, and it can be expressed as
the ratio of diversion rate to potential diversion rate, i.e.

Diversion rate
Diversion Effectiveness = diversion rate

Inorder to analyse any given recycling scheme, the measures of

cost of recycling and performance indicators are important. It is
apparent that any recycling scheme needs some degree of ongoing
support to ensure continued performance. Careful and regular
monitoring of performance allow such support to maximise the success
of recycling.
 REFERENCES

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James. H. Abert (183). Resource Recovery Guide. New York:

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 Appendix 3.1 Reasons for Recycling
- --

I Environmental Reasons

1. Reduced pollution emissions in the production process and from the

disposal of waste

( 1 Reduced energy consumption in production process

2
I
1 3 1 Long term value of conservation of raw materials I
1 4 / Provision of steady state of sustainable economy 1
( I1 / Economic Reasons I
/ 1 / Reduced expenditure on waste disposal I
[2 1 Regeneration of urban economy
/ 3 ~ R e d u c e d b a l ~ of
c epayment deficit ~nraw matenals 1
4 Income to local authorities from the sale of materials

5 Income generation through more employment opportunities

111 Social Reasons

1 Employment creation in economically depressed areas

2 Promotion of decentralised forms of social and economic

organisation

3 Promotion of positive social norms in the community