Environmental Benefits of Recycling Study
The Environmental Benefits of Recycling Study (June 2010) undertakes a life cycle assessment to determine if recycling is environmentally preferable across a range of material types. This study is based on a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology to assess the potential environmental impacts of recycling. The system boundary for the study begins at the point of waste generation and encompasses processes required to either recycle the waste material or treat it in landfill and to measure landfill space savings, greenhouse gas abatement, energy and water conservation impacts.
Environmental Benefits of Recycling Study (1058BenefitsOfRecycling.pdf, 1.04MB)
Summar sheets provide more information on each of the material types modelled and can be downloaded below.
| Summary sheet |
Materials and assumptions |
Metals
(1058App1Metal.pdf, 2.13MB) |
Aluminium, copper and steel |
Building materials
(1058App2Building.pdf, 420KB)
|
Concrete, brick, asphalt and paperboard |
| Paper and cardboard (1058AppPaper.pdf, 643KB) |
Packaging paper and board, newsprint, liquid paper board and office paper |
Organics
(1058AppOrganics.pdf, 256KB) |
Timber pallets, food and garden organics combined, and garden organics |
Glass
(1058AppGlass.pdf, 323KB) |
Glass containers, sheet and laminated glass |
Plastics
(1058AppPlastics.pdf, 745KB) |
PET, HDPE, PVC, mixed plastics and rubber tyres |
Assumptions
(1058AppAssumptions.pdf, 337KB) |
Collection, treatment, material recovery and energy assumptions |
Where to from here?
The Environmental Benefits of Recycling Study will be the basis to create a simple on-line calculation tool (The Recyculator) that will help councils, industry and businesses estimate the full environmental benefits of their recycling and broaden resource recovery programs, as well as communicate these benefits to the community in a simple and understandable way. This will be available soon.
Our previous calculator, The Benefits of Recycling Calculator 2006 (BenefitsRecyclingCalculator06-04-06.xls, 1.05MB) is still available to graph your performance and plot your progress.
More information
For more information, contact the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) on (02) 8837 6000 or by email at improved.practice@epa.nsw.gov.au
Page last updated: 27 July 2012
