RE: [GreenYes] Recycling economics

["Laura Flanigan" <laura@ninthfloor.com>]

I was just recently reading Lester Brown's "Eco Economy", and he does a
great job of explaining common European taxes on "environmentally
destructive" activities.  Of course, one of the keys to establishing
environmental change in America is reflecting the "true cost" of goods and
services- whether or not America will accept that in terms of new taxes is
up in the air (though, some european countries are lowering other personal
taxes in order to pass the environmental taxes.)

I would guess that this trend seems to imply that European landfill charges
are also going to be higher to reflect the true environmental cost of
landfilling waste.

See links below for entire contents of EcoEconomy and also the chapter that
talks about the restructured tax policy.

Does any one have any thoughts on the book "Why do we recycle? Markets,
Values, and Public Policy" by Frank Ackerman?

http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/Eco_contents.htm
http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/chap11.PDF

Laura

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-greenyes@grrn.org [mailto:owner-greenyes@grrn.org]On Behalf
Of Eric Lombardi
Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2002 5:37 PM
To: Michele Raymond; Greenyes@grrn.org
Subject: Re: [GreenYes] Recycling economics


Michele,

Why are European landfill rates so high?  Is it a pure market rate that
reflects a scarcity of landfills and/or extremely high land prices?  Or, as
I suspect, is it a reflection of a social policy to add "landfill use taxes"
of some sort?  If so, how much of these rates that you cite are market and
how much tax?

Eric Lombardi
Eco-Cycle

-----Original Message-----
From: Michele Raymond <michele@raymond.com>
To: Greenyes@grrn.org <Greenyes@grrn.org>
Date: Monday, August 05, 2002 9:42 AM
Subject: [GreenYes] Recycling economics


>
>Economics are difficult for recycling because landfilling is too cheap.
>
>Either:
>A. governments must see it as another service to be paid for
>B. landfill costs must rise
>
>Recycling is not a money-maker, unless your tip fees are high, or there is
>a big demand for the material.
>
>If landfills were designed to truly NOT leak in the future, then tip fees
>would be closer to $100/ton and  recycling would be more economic.
>
>In Europe, landfill tip fees are $100 - $300 a ton -- so even without the
>EPR mandates, there would be quite a bit of recycling, at least of the
>traditional materials and beverage containers.  Moreover, they have a
>landfill directive that will require a reduction of 75% of degradable waste
>going to landfills eventually -- pre-treatment will be required.
>
>Of interest, the latest amendments to the packaging directive indicate
>there needs to be some economic incentive for companies to use recycled
>plastics, and that governments need to start purchasing recycled products
>-- issues the US has been working on for a long time -- without the big
hammer.
>
>Cheers
>Michele Raymond
>
>Michele Raymond
>Publisher
>Recycling Laws International/ State Recycling Laws Update
>5111 Berwyn Rd. Ste 115 College Park, MD 20740)
>301/345-4237   Fax 345-4768
>http://www.raymond.com
>
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