Handbook of Recycling

Chapter 33

Recycling in Waste Management Policy

Ernst Worrell     Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

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 400 BC. 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 ...