Improving recycling: How far should we go?

Paul Belleflamme and Huan Ha
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Huan Ha: Université catholique de Louvain, LIDAM/CORE, Belgium

No 2021009, LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE from Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE)

Abstract: We analyze the strategic interaction between competing firms that source their inputs from either primary or recycled material. Because the manufacturers’ primary production today serves as input for the recyclers’ production tomorrow, manufacturers can limit the recyclers’ scale of operation by reducing their output. Improving the recycling process generates then two opposite effects: it reduces primary production tomorrow by exposing manufacturers to stronger competition from recyclers, but it also lowers the manufacturers’ incentives to reduce their primary production today. Making the recycling process too efficient might then be counterproductive for the environment. This intuition equally applies to remanufacturing.

Keywords: Recycling; remanufacturing; circular economy; strategic entry accommodation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L13 L72 O13 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27
Date: 2021-07-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com, nep-env, nep-gth and nep-isf
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Related works:
Journal Article: Improving Recycling: How Far Should We Go? (2024)
Working Paper: Improving Recycling: How Far Should We Go? (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cor:louvco:2021009

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