International Review of Waste Management Policy - Department of ...

materials. 675 Thus complementary policies have a key role to play in determining the
implementation costs of such a service.
Cost-Benefit Analysis of separate collection and recycling of waste materials in New
Zealand
A recent study (2007) delivered by Covec on behalf of the Ministry for the
Environment in New Zealand 676 examined the costs and benefits of recycling paper,
plastics, glass, organics (food and garden waste), C&D waste, tyres and used oil. The
study compared the cost of disposal to landfill to the delivery of a kerbside collection
and subsequent recycling of the materials. The costs of recycling include the cost of
collection and sorting minus the value of the materials in the end-user markets.
Analysis for each material used three sets of assumptions:
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� An initial recycling rate based on benefit estimates that include savings in
landfill costs but ignore external costs associated with emissions, leachate
and direct consumer benefits;
� A low benefit estimate where the savings were assigned low values per tonne
and included external costs; and
� A high benefit estimate where the savings were assigned higher values per
tonne and also included external costs.
Analysis showed that there is the potential to increase recycling rates at a positive
net-benefit for all waste streams using the high-benefit estimates. However, when
lower values were assigned for the savings, separate collections of PVC, LDPE and
organics (combined food and garden waste) showed a negative net-benefit. For the
organic material, this cost was particularly associated with a shift in garden waste
tonnage from civic amenity sites to the co-mingled collections at the kerbside.
34.7 Effects on Technical Change / Innovation
As with environmental benefits, it is difficult to trace technical changes and
innovations to one specific policy. However, the push to increase recycling is likely to
have had the effect of encouraging collectors/reprocessors to ensure that the
material which they are collecting/delivering to the market is high-quality.
Key areas of technical change/ innovation associated with the implementation of
minimum recycling standards are the development of vehicles in order to collect
separated waste efficiently from households, the development of markets for the
recyclable materials and the development of biowaste treatment infrastructure. The
increasing collection of biowaste has seen an increase in the development of both
675 ECOTEC Research and Consulting Limited (2000) Beyond the Bin: The Economics of Waste
Management Options, Report produced for Friends of the Earth, UK Waste and Waste Watch. Available
at http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/economics_waste_options.pdf
676 Covec (2007) Recycling: Cost Benefit Analysis, prepared for the Ministry of the Environment, New
Zealand.
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes