Do recycling and regulations influence trade-adjusted resource consumption? Exploring the role of renewable energy

Lei Zheng, Jia Hao and Nannan Ban

Resources Policy, 2023, vol. 81, issue C

Abstract: Sustainable resource consumption and environmental sustainability are core objectives of every economy. Particularly, the United States (US) has shown enormous growth in material and resource usage. However, few studies have investigated the influence of recycling on the trade-adjust material footprint. Therefore, this study employed the bootstrap autoregressive distributed lag model to evaluate the dynamic impact of recycling, renewable energy, and regulation on the consumption-based material footprint in the US from Q1-1994 to Q4-2019. The long-run findings exhibit that recycling significantly reduces resource consumption. Besides, ecological regulations and renewable energy significantly mitigate the per capita material footprint. The short-run estimates are also compatible with long-run findings but smaller in coefficient magnitude. The negative and significant coefficient of error correction term adjusts the model with 24.8% speed quarterly towards the steady state in case of any disturbance from the short-run. The granger causality test affirms the bi-directional causal relationship between the model's variables. The findings suggest that policymakers should design sustainable strategies that encourage recycling and renewable energy consumption with stringent control to stimulate resource efficiency.

Keywords: Recycling; Trade-adjusted resource consumption; Regulation; Renewable energy; United States (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:81:y:2023:i:c:s0301420723001095

DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2023.103401

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