Abstract
Industrial ecology (IE) argues the need for an efficient materials economy based on recycling where environmental degradation associated with inputs of new materials and outputs of waste or pollution is minimal. There is often an assumption that efficiency in the use of materials equates to economic efficiency; however, this is not necessarily the case. Central to this tension between engineering and economic approaches to materials efficiency are different conceptual framings of value. Because a large scale shift towards valuing waste materials as future resources involves changes to existing practices of a great many actors and organizations, ranging from consumers and household disposal practices, through to government agencies and multi-national corporations, it cannot be assumed that all operate with similar conceptions of value. This paper reviews current understandings of value in IE and argues that they need to be expanded to accommodate approaches to valuing used goods and materials that manifest across different spatial scales, from household disposal practices to national policy to global production networks (GPNs). The paper focuses, in particular, on understandings of value relevant to metals recycling in Australia and contrast material flow models from IE with other models of material flows and transformations available in the social sciences, including anthropological analysis of the movement of objects through different regimes of value within society and analysis in economic geography that highlights spatial and structural dimensions influential in commodity chains and networks for used products and materials. It concludes by reflecting on the significance of the dynamic and creative tensions inherent in the production of value for recycled metals from Australia.
Highlights
Environmental scenarios developed by industrial ecologists have influenced contemporary concern around the need for greater materials efficiency and more closed loop production systems that use materials obtained from recycled end of life products
Has different meanings in Industrial ecology (IE) and economics [1]. This difference is relevant to a significant critique leveled at IE, that it has failed to develop a sophisticated understanding of the spatial dimensions of capturing economic value that drive global material flows [2,3,4,5]
Drawing on the example of used metals originating in Australia, the paper examines the material flow models developed in IE to identify and unpack notions of value that are implied but not explained
Summary
Environmental scenarios developed by industrial ecologists have influenced contemporary concern around the need for greater materials efficiency and more closed loop production systems that use materials obtained from recycled end of life products. This difference is relevant to a significant critique leveled at IE, that it has failed to develop a sophisticated understanding of the spatial dimensions of capturing economic value that drive global material flows [2,3,4,5] Evidence of this is provided by the failure of the regionally focused closed loop industrial system models to take off beyond a few exceptional examples. Drawing on the example of used metals originating in Australia, the paper examines the material flow models developed in IE to identify and unpack notions of value that are implied but not explained It considers the dynamics of value involved in recycling used metals from Australia, drawing on two quite different conceptual framings from economic geography and anthropology that each offers important insights into the processes involved in the revaluing of waste materials. It concludes with a reflection on the potential of the calculative tools of IE to influence the material flows they describe and considers the kind of information needed to refine these tools to better accommodate the multiple valuing practices that operate at different spatial scales
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