Chapter 33 - Recycling in Waste Management Policy

Abstract

Traditionally, waste management policy has been directed at the sanitary disposal of waste at the lowest direct costs for the stakeholders. Evidence exist of recycling through re-melting of glass and bronze in societies as early as 400BC. In more modern times even money was impossible without recycling, as many banknotes consisted of cotton from recycled clothing. Recycling was then economically more attractive than production from primary resources, also due to the allocation of costs and the negligence of external costs of materials production and waste management. Only, when low-cost mass production techniques reduced the costs of materials and products since the industrial revolution, we see a decreasing attention for recycling, as it became economically less attractive. This chapter discusses the changing role of recycling as part of (solid) waste management, starting with a brief history, followed by a discussion of recycling as the key to and an integral part of modern waste management. This chapter excludes special or hazardous waste management.