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Policy incentives for waste prevention. An economic approach to design for recycling

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The Journal of Sustainable Product Design

Abstract

The question is how to foster design for recycling and high-grade reuse of durable products (as a waste prevention strategy) in view of competing strategies: recycling before disposal and direct disposal. The answer is based on cases of re-design and waste recycling: re-design of office furniture, kitchens and electronic equipment and recycling of brown and white goods, and cars. The framework is waste policy in the European Union that limits direct disposal through restrictions and supports recycling with subsidies. The cases show that design for recycling is attractive only if customers pay a premium for re-design because savings due to lower recycling and disposal costs are low in comparison with manufacturers’ investment in re-design. Recycling before disposal calls for large-scale operations to justify development of cost-effective technologies, but returns on scale are limited by costs of take-back logistics. We discuss the effect of policy incentives on re-design with the help of a simulation model. Policy incentives for re-design are less effective in comparison with customers’ premium for the re-designed products, whereas subsidies for investments in re-design and deposit-refund for the low-price elasticity products are the most effective policy incentives.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cartesius Institute, University of Twente, The Netherlands

    Joram Krozer & Petra Doelman

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  1. Joram Krozer
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  2. Petra Doelman
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Krozer, J., Doelman, P. Policy incentives for waste prevention. An economic approach to design for recycling. The Journal of Sustainable Product Design 3, 3–17 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JSPD.0000035554.28041.36

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JSPD.0000035554.28041.36

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