Earnings, jobs and innovation: the role of recycling in a green economy

European Environmental Agency Report full article

The report finds that revenues from recycling are substantial and growing fast. From 2004 to 2008 the turnover of seven main categories of recyclables almost doubled to more than 60 billion Euros in the EU.

However, due to the reduced demand for raw materials and a decline in commodity prices during the economic downturn the turnover of recycling declined sharply at the end of 2008 and in the first half of 2009. According to the EEA this seems to have recovered somewhat since then.

The report said that the booming economies in Asia are driving increasing demand for recyclables and pushing up the price of materials.

Another driver identified by the report is the EU waste directives, which have obligations to recycle or recover increasing percentages of waste, and discourage landfilling. As a consequence, the amount of recyclables sorted and placed on the market has increased 15% between 2004 and 2009.

Furthermore, the EEA claimed that more jobs at higher income levels are created by recycling than compared to landfilling or incinerating waste.

The overall employment related to the recycling of materials in European countries has increased steadily from 422 per million inhabitants in 2000 to 611 in 2007. This represents an increase of 45 % between 2000 and 2007, corresponding to an annual increase of 7 %.

According to the report's authors, recycling can meet a large proportion of the economy's resources demand, alleviating pressure on ecosystems to provide resources and assimilate waste. Recycling already meets substantial proportions of demand for some resource groups, notably paper and cardboard, and iron and steel.

However, the EEA added that even maximum recycling could not cover all EU demand for resources. Increased recycling can improve 'resource security', but economic growth driven by ever increasing material consumption cannot be sustained, as it requires an infinite volume of resources.