A note on inter-country differences in waste paper recovery and utilization

Countries worldwide express waste paper recycling targets in terms of recovery and utilization rates. The main purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the most important determinants of inter-country differences in these waste paper rates. By employing two regression models and using data for 89 and 81 countries, respectively, the paper concludes that relative waste paper recovery and use are largely mark-et-determined, and depend thus on long-standing economic factors such as population intensity and competitiveness in the world market for paper and board products. We also find evidence that supports the conjecture that rich countries tend to recover relatively more waste paper than is the case in low-income countries, reflecting the higher demand for waste management and environmental policies in more developed economics. As recovery and utilization rates are determined largely by long-standing economic and demographic characteristics the degree of policy flexibility in affecting these rates may be limited. In particular, an ambitious utilization rate target may be very costly to enforce as it can conflict with existing trade patterns of paper and board products as well as with other environmental goals. Additional policy targets may, therefore, be desirable, especially since paper recycling is motivated primarily by environmental concerns and seldom is a benign activity in itself. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.