Economic and Ethical Issues in Recycling: A Research Proposal

Overview and Research Aims

There is general agreement that the U.S. should be undertaking more recycling, with only 34.3% of current waste recycled. The rate is increasing, and while there have been legislative moves, it may be argued that ethical awareness and economic factors have had a greater impact. This research proposal argues that the dualistic approach to recycling seen in the anthropocentric model can be used to show how and why uptake has been restrained, as there is a need for economic motivations to support the practice. These motivations are now emerging, but there is still room for improvement. By undertaking quantitative research with businesses and consumers, the paper proposes gathering information that can be statistically analysed to identify the most efficient policy approaches to improve recycling.

The level of waste generated is increasing; it is estimated that in the U.S. approximately 254.1 million tonnes of waste were generated in 2013 (Statista, 2016b). This equates to an estimated 4.3 pounds of waste per person every day (Duke University, 2016). The impact of this waste is enormous; in 2008 it was estimated that methane generated from municipal landfill sites accounted for 22% of the country's methane emissions (Duke University, 2016). However, while it is a significant problem, it has not gone unrecognised. There has been increasing emphasis placed on the value and importance of recycling (Gandy, 2014), supported by growing levels of legislation and regulation mandating waste reduction and recycling measures (Ackerman, 2013).

While these measures are having an impact, it has been the ethical and economic issues that have had the greatest influence. In recent years the level of recycling has risen considerably: in 1960 only 6.4% of municipal waste was recycled; this rose to 16% in 1990, 28.5% in 2000, and 34.3% in 2013 (Statista, 2016a). A key aspect of recycling is the way in which consumers sort and provide waste in a manner that allows it to be recycled, alongside the recycling facilities and services that are commercially available (Sarmaniotis & Tilikidou, 2000).

This paper examines the issues impacting the practice of recycling, considering the ethical and economic influences, to assess which are most likely to shape recycling behavior. This may also indicate the areas of policy and practice that could be targeted to encourage recycling further. The main aims of this research include:

The scope and scale of the research will be limited by both time and budget constraints, with the research focusing only on the U.S. due to these limitations. This proposal presents a literature review examining the relevant issues associated with the study, followed by a methodology that may be used to assess the ethical and economic issues.

Defining Recycling

The concept of recycling may appear simple: waste products are recovered and then reused in some way, which may require processing (Gandy, 2014). The Environmental Protection Act defines recycling — as well as reclamation and reuse — as "a method, technique or process designed to remove any contaminant from waste so as to render such waste reusable, or any process by which materials that would otherwise be disposed of or discarded are collected, separated or processed and returned to the economic mainstream in the form of raw materials or products" (EPA, 2013, p. 1). The Solid Waste Management Act defines recycling as "the process by which solid waste is collected, separated and processed for reuse as either a raw material or a product which itself is subject to recycling." Notably, this latter definition clearly excludes the use of waste as a combustible fuel.

Recycling may also be divided into primary, secondary, and tertiary forms (Recycling Consortium, 2016). Primary recycling occurs where the object being recycled does not change in any way; this is often seen where something is used second-hand and is referred to as second-hand use (Recycling Consortium, 2016). Secondary recycling involves some type of modification to the product without the presence of any chemical processes — for example, cutting up an egg box to use it as a seed tray (Recycling Consortium, 2016). Tertiary recycling is where the products being recycled need to be reprocessed either through heat or a chemical process, such as melting down metals, plastic, or glass, processing waste paper, or grinding rubber (Recycling Consortium, 2016).

As the first two forms of recycling often take place before products become municipal waste and potentially go to landfill, the main focus of this paper is on tertiary recycling.

Ethical Frameworks and Recycling

There have been many arguments supporting recycling, with the majority of societal actors regarding it as beneficial. There are different ethical approaches that may be adopted, with two major schools of thought being the anthropocentric and the ecocentric approaches. Both relate directly to the use of resources and how they may be gathered and reused with reference to environmental impacts (Purser, Park, & Montuori, 1995).

The most common approach found in the commercial environment is the anthropocentric approach — a dualistic view of nature, defined by Eckersley (1992) as "the belief that there is a clear and morally relevant dividing line between humankind and the rest of nature, that humankind is the only principal source of value or meaning in the world" (p. 51). This can be characterised as a self-centred approach, where there is a desire to rationalise the actions of mankind and justify weaker responses to phenomena that are known to be harming the environment (Eckersley, 1992). Under this dualist approach, there is arguably a greater level of alignment with economic considerations, as it prioritises human needs. This orientation is reflected in the approach to environmental issues put forward in the Brundtland report (United Nations, 1987).

The alternative approach holds a far narrower concept of what is ethical and adopts a far more proactive attitude toward what is needed and what is right. This ecocentric approach may be defined as a "pro-active perception of environmentalism, emancipating ecosystems from the effects of human mismanagement, overuse, and exploitation" (Purser et al., 1995, p. 1067). This approach necessitates that people reduce the waste created in the first place and maximise the amount of recycling undertaken in order to reduce harm — unless recycling itself would produce negative environmental impacts. This perspective is more likely to be found in activist organisations, such as Greenpeace, than in commercial entities. Within this framework, economic issues are not a primary concern, as they are secondary to the interests of the environment.