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(50-07) Eco-efficiency in a recycling system - a static and a semi-dynamic evaluation. Eik, Arne*,1, Solem, Håvard1, Brattebø, Helge1, Steinmo, Solveig2, Saugen, Bernt2, 1 IndEcol-NTNU, Trondheim, Norway2 Tomra Systems ASA, Asker, Norway ABSTRACT- The concept of eco-efficiency was introduced by the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in 1992. Since then it has been widely adopted among companies to measure and improve the value added while progressively reducing the environmental influence per product or service to the market. However, focus has until now mainly been on the production stage and to some extent the user stage of products or services, not on the end-of-life stage. In this presentation, which is a result of the case-study Eco-efficiency in recycling systems for plastic packaging within the Norwegian research program Productivity 2005-Industrial ecology, we have developed a static and a semi-dynamic method for evaluating eco-efficiency in recycling systems. Whereas the first is a six-step procedure based on an LCA approach the second method makes use of economic theories of the firm in order to model impacts on eco-efficiency for a wider range of recycling rates. We have applied these approaches for a specific recycling system for plastic packaging in Norway. The study shows that recycling under today's conditions is not preferable from an eco-efficient point way. However, by introducing realistic technical and organizational changes, use of both methods show that a noticeable amount of plastic packaging generated in households should be recycled. The case study also shows that efforts for improving eco-efficiency in recycling systems should be put as early as possible in the plastic packaging life cycle chain. Key words: eco-efficiency, recycling, plastic packaging, evluation methods |
