Research on derivation of optimal recycling rate

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25380289
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Economic policy
• Research Institution: University of Toyama
• Principal Investigator: Yamamoto Masashi 富山大学, 研究推進機構極東地域研究センター, 准教授 (30458947)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): SHINKUMA Takayoshi 関西大学, 経済学部, 教授 (80312099)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: リサイクル / 一般廃棄物

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research analyzed two topics. The first one was to identify what rate was optimal for household's recycling rate. In this analysis, we succeeded in deriving the cost of household to sort their waste by the function of unit price of waste discharge. This enables us to calculate the social cost of recycling. Simulating the recycling rate which minimized this social cost, we found the optimal recycling rate is far smaller than 100%.

The second one was to identify if an excess capacity of incinerators "competed" against recycling activity. Through theoretical analysis, we found that, depending upon the elasticity of demand, the subsidy to build incinerators, which have seen a lot in Japan, could worse off the economic welfare. Our empirical result supported that the more there is incinerator's capacity in a local authority, the less the recycling rate is.

Free Research Field

環境経済学