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Recycling has multiple benefits for many areas of the economy
- providing raw materials, creating jobs and encouraging business
opportunities and innovation.
These economic benefits of recycling are examined in a new
report from the European Environment Agency (EEA). The report
considers the recycling industry in the context of building
a 'green economy', a major European policy objective.
The report
- 'Earnings, jobs and innovation: the role of recycling
in a green economy' - shows that recycling has numerous
environmental benefits including diverting waste away from
landfill, thereby avoiding pollutant emissions. It also helps
meet the material demands of economic production, preventing
the environmental impacts associated with extracting and refining
virgin materials.
Revenues from recycling are substantial and growing fast.
From 2004 to 2008, the turnover of seven main categories of
recyclables almost doubled to more than €60 billion in the
EU. Due to a reduced demand for raw materials and a decline
in commodity prices during the economic downturn, the turnover
of recycling declined sharply at the end of 2008 and in the
first half of 2009, but seems to have recovered somewhat since
then.
The growth of recycling is being driven by increasing demand
for recyclables, as booming Asian economies help to push up
the price of materials.
Another driver has been EU waste directives, which have contributed
by creating obligations to recycle or recover increasing percentages
of waste and discouraging landfilling. As a consequence, the
amount of recyclables sorted and placed on the market has
increased 15% between 2004 and 2009.
More jobs at higher income levels are created by recycling
than compared to landfilling or incinerating waste. Overall
employment related to the recycling of materials in European
countries increased by 45% between 2000 and 2007.
Recycling can meet a large proportion of the economy’s resources
demand, alleviating pressure on ecosystems to provide resources
and assimilate waste. Recycling already meets substantial
proportions of demand for some resource groups, notably paper
and cardboard, and iron and steel.
However, even maximum recycling cannot cover all EU demand
for resources. Increased recycling can improve 'resource
security', but economic growth driven by ever increasing
material consumption cannot be sustained, as it requires an
infinite volume of resources.
Recycling is particularly valuable in securing supplies
of critical resources. Recycling of rare metals is essential
for the EU to pioneer new technologies, particularly in areas
such as e-mobility, information and communication technologies
and renewable energy. Imports of precious metal waste into
Europe increased 50% between 2000 and 2009 - the only group
of recyclable materials which grew significantly during this
period.
However, rare and precious metals are characterised by dissipative
use, meaning that they are used in small amounts in a multitude
of applications and products. The existing recycling infrastructure
has not yet focused on this problem, meaning that many of
these metals are lost.
The economic, social and environmental benefits of recycling
highlight the need to shift to a green economy in order to
generate prosperity while maintaining a healthy environment
and social equity for current and future generations.
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