Jobs, economy and digital transformation
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Social justice
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Climate change and environment
If you recycle waste, the process also produces emissions and is not necessarily environmentally friendly. Sometimes, waste is also sent abroad to be recycled, which accounts for further emission. The most effective way is therefore to focus on solutions that produce less waste instead of developing more solutions to improve recycling.
What we are faced with is a classic market failure problem where there are information assymetries and time inconsistencies. The diagnosis of the problem has been accurately done: We produce too much waste in ways that are unfriendly and costly to treat in a safe way. Lowering the amount of waste should be easy, but as we learned from the last three decades of waste directives, the focus needs to change.
First, the recycling market needs not only access to funds and subsidized credits in order to set up infrastructure and capacity, which is both necessary given the economies of scale of the sector. Most importantly, we need to remember that recycling is the last step and has, throughout the years, captured too much of the agenda. The national governments should face the fact that market interventions are not only needed but also beneficial - both for the circular economy and for the environment.
Here are two short examples: First, secondary raw materials, meaning materials which result from some sort of recycling process, are rarely price competitive. If price is the deciding factor, governments need to create incentive to push for raw materials substitution - decoupling needs to happen or else recycling brings little to the table.
Second, buying something new is often cheaper than having your item repaired. Take the electric and electronic equipment for example! The new EC regulation 2019/2021 makes it easier for the repair market to access information and spare parts, but the fact is that to repair something is still far more expensive and time consuming than to buy something new.
If repairing is the best environmental option, because it keeps all the materials in use and replaces the non functioning ones, then why is not being subject to for example incentive schemes and tax exemptions? The repair sector is by far less environmentally damaging than the production of new goods but prices fail to capture this dimension - and that needs to change.
I think for democracy to develop, people must treat each other with respect and decency. It is very difficult to live in a world where each other is not respected.
For democracy, people should support and respect each other
For democracy, people should support and respect each other