Waste Input-Output Analysis, LCA and LCC

Any economic activity generates waste of some kind, which needs to be treated by some waste treatment method. Corresponding to any flow of goods among different sectors of the economy, there exists the associated flow of waste involving waste treatment sectors. The conventional IOA was originally developed to represent the intersectoral flow of goods and hence is not designed to take account of the flow of waste associated with it. Consequently, in its conventional form, IOA is not able to take proper account of the effects that result from the interaction between the flows of goods and wastes.

The pioneering study in the field of environmental IOA (EIO) that is relevant to waste management issues is the Leontief pollution abatement model (Leontief 1970, 1972). Leontief extended the conventional IOA to take account of the emission of pollutants, their elimination activity, and the interdependence between conventional goods-producing sectors and pollution abatement sectors. With regard to their relevance to issues of waste management, the Leontief pollution abatement model and its extension by Faye Duchin (1990) can be characterized by the fact that they assume the existence of a strict one-to-one correspondence between a pollutant (waste) and its abatement (waste treatment) method.