Selecting Recycling Strategies by Input-Output-Analysis

With the thematic strategy on the prevention and recycling of waste the European Commission aims at the long-term goal to become a recycling society, that seeks to avoid waste and uses waste as a resource. The contribution of waste management to conservation of resources is depending on the degree of substitution of primary resources by waste products. However, a recycling of high value is bound by high quality standards for the recycling products. The coupling between waste management necessitate to optimise recycling strategies and to define quality criteria for secondary products.