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Market Issues For Recycled Aggregates: Presented by

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19 views22 pages

Market Issues For Recycled Aggregates: Presented by

Uploaded by

YASHWANTH.M.K
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Market Issues for Recycled Aggregates

Presented by

Dr. V G Ram
The University of Sheffield
What is a Market?
• Markets are institutions that exist to facilitate exchange (of goods or services), that is,
they exist to reduce the cost of carrying out exchange transactions” (Coase 2012)

üArena or Space (physical or virtual)


üBuyers and Sellers
üCommodity

Coase, R.H. (2012). The firm, the market, and the law. University of Chicago press, 2012.
What is a Market?

• Markets establish prices of goods and services, determined by supply and demand

↑ P ↓Q demand
Inverse proportionality Status of the market (if any)
for recycled aggregates ?
↑ P ↑ Q supply
Direct proportionality

G. Mick Smith, PhD: Unit 2 Prices and Markets Chapter 4 Demand (CCBYSA)
Barriers to recycling

ü Regulative
ü Normative
ü Cognitive

Policies needed to overcome barriers?


Rationale for investing public money?
Why we recycle?
• Misconception: To reduce waste (or landfilling)
üRecycling impacts more than landfilling
Landfilling ~ 4 kg CO2 eq per tonne Recycling ~ 5.5 kg CO2 eq per tonne
Why we recycle?
• The real benefit is it displaces ‘primary’ production
Pristine aggregates Recycling (recycled aggregates)
~ 12.5 kg CO2 eq per tonne ~ 5.5 kg CO2 eq per tonne

Savings: 12.5 – 5.5 = 7 kg CO2 eq per tonne


Benefits of recycling

Avoided impacts of primary production

+
Benefits of recycling = Avoided impacts of landfilling

-
Impacts of recycling

This is theoretical and an ideal case


Engineering system

Use phase /
Primary production Landfill
Operations phase

Collection and
recycling
Economic system

Use phase /
Primary production Materials market Landfill
Operations phase

Collection and
recycling
Price effect due to market forces

If two products are substitutes, supply / incentive - increase of either of it


will result in
• Reduced prices for both products
• Increased consumption of both products
• Overall consumption will always be higher than before
• Consumers respond to price changes and market is not a zero-sum game
• Competition can shift to other markets too (e.g., RA may displace alternative
aggregates such as fly ash aggregates or crusher dust)
Inefficient displacement leading to rebound effects at
different economic levels (micro, meso, macro, and global)
Further reading: Zink, Trevor, and Roland Geyer. "Circular economy rebound." Journal of industrial ecology 21.3
(2017): 593-602.
Displacement potential

Use phase /
Primary production Materials market Landfill
Operations phase
P
Collection and
recycling
R
∆P
_____
Displacement rate d =
∆R

Benefits = d × (Avoided primary + Avoided landfill) – Recycling impacts

Further reading: Geyer, Roland, et al. "Common misconceptions about recycling." Journal of Industrial
Ecology 20.5 (2016): 1010-1017.
Zink, Trevor, Roland Geyer, and Richard Startz. "A market-based framework for quantifying displaced
production from recycling or reuse." Journal of Industrial Ecology 20.4 (2016): 719-729.
Breakeven displacement

0 = dBE × (avoided primary + avoided landfill) – recycling impacts

dBE = recycling impacts / (avoided primary + avoided landfill)

For recycled aggregates, dBE = 33 %


Actual displacement? - depends on behaviour

Further reading: Zink, Trevor, Roland Geyer, and Richard Startz. "Toward estimating displaced primary production from
recycling: A case study of US aluminum." Journal of Industrial Ecology 22.2 (2018): 314-326.
Behavioural rebound

• Existence of recycling option led to the usage of


ü 28% more cups
ü19% more wrapping paper
ü43% more scratch paper
ü32% more pens
• Participants felt better about it as well.

Source: Sun, M., & Trudel, R. (2017). The Effect of Recycling versus Trashing on Consumption: Theory and Experimental
Evidence. Journal of Marketing Research, 54(2), 293-305. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmr.15.0574
Implications

• Recycling is beneficial only if harmful primary production is prevented


• But there is no guarantee that recycling will do that
üOverall consumption can increase
üCan displace something less harmful
Engineer’s perspective of circular economy

Further reading: Zink, Trevor, and Roland Geyer. "Circular economy rebound." Journal of industrial ecology 21.3
(2017): 593-602.
Pic credits: Trevor Zink
Economist’s perspective

Further reading: Zink, Trevor, and Roland Geyer. "Circular economy rebound." Journal of industrial ecology 21.3
(2017): 593-602.
Pic credits: Trevor Zink
Circular Economy Rebound

Further reading: Zink, Trevor, and Roland Geyer. "Circular economy rebound." Journal of industrial ecology 21.3
(2017): 593-602.
Pic credits: Trevor Zink
Circular Economy Rebound

Further reading: Zink, Trevor, and Roland Geyer. "Circular economy rebound." Journal of industrial ecology 21.3
(2017): 593-602.
Pic credits: Trevor Zink
Circular Economy Rebound

Further reading: Zink, Trevor, and Roland Geyer. "Circular economy rebound." Journal of industrial ecology 21.3
(2017): 593-602.
Pic credits: Trevor Zink
Lessons from Circular Economy Rebound
• Circular economy (CE) activities can either raise or lower production quantities
• CE activities can either raise or lower production / use impacts

Further reading: Zink, Trevor, and Roland Geyer. "Circular economy rebound." Journal of industrial ecology 21.3
(2017): 593-602.
Takeaways
• Recycling is not a ‘silver bullet’
ü Can never prevent end-of-life disposal but merely delay it

ü Recycling usually increases impact-increasing behaviour

• Avoiding rebound?
• Focus on primary production displacement
ü Use recycled aggregates

ü Rethinking usages of pristine aggregates?


ü Performance specifications?

• Reuse (reuse behaviour is crucial)


• Importance of waste reduction
Thank You

Consume less!

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