The effect of prices on the recycling of waste materials

Recycling policy, insofar as it exists, tends to be heavily weighted towards price manipulation. However, it is by now fairly well established that the supply of secondary materials is in most cases quite unresponsive to price changes, so that price-based policies are very unlikely to be effective. This view is further borne out by an attempt to consider explicitly the sort of adjustment processes which must necessarily occur in the generally volatile markets for waste materials. It is suggested that price-oriented policies must first influence the expectations of potential suppliers before any response is forthcoming When this is considered along with the evidently small reaction to those expectations, an even more pessimistic conclusion about the suitability of standard measures to encourage recycling is reached.