A Baseline Input—Output Model with Environmental Accounts (IOEA) Applied to E-Waste Recycling

Abstract

This article reports the authors’ efforts to construct a baseline input—output (IO) model with environmental accounts for use in modeling geographically specific e-waste recycling systems. The authors address conceptual and practical issues that arise when recyclable end-of-life (EOL) commodities and related activities are incorporated into the traditional IO model including: (1) shortcomings of existing industry and commodity accounts that do not explicitly represent recycling activities and recyclable EOL products; (2) accounting challenges related to flows of EOL products observed mainly in physical volumes; and (3) valuing EOL products whose transactions prices vary widely. These three issues complicate the incorporation of EOL commodities within the conventional IO framework. The authors present a way to record the transactions of EOL products in both physical and monetary terms in an IO model with environmental accounts. Specifically, the authors present the case of e-waste recycling for the Atlanta metropolitan area (AMA) with an empirically based hypothetical scenario.

Input-output models and waste management analysis: A critical review

“…Almost 75% of IO models used in the reviewed case studies measured the intersectoral flows of products in monetary units. The reviewed WEIO models such as (Beylot et al, 2017;Choi et al, 2011;Reynolds et al, 2016a) and WIO models such as (Beylot et al, 2015;Nakamura and Kondo, 2002a;Tsukui et al, 2015) have measured product flows in monetary units, but have recorded waste in physical units (see Table 1 A, B and Fig. 4 A, B).…”

Evaluating environmental impacts of alternative construction waste management approaches using supply-chain-linked life-cycle analysis

“…This study quantified the energy savings obtained from recycling as well as the avoided emissions of GHGs. On the other hand, Choi et al (2010) utilized the EIO-LCA to analyse the economic impacts of electronic waste in Atlanta, Georgia. In their study, researchers developed a regional economic model that explicitly incorporated the flow of recyclable commodities and related industries within the input–output framework.…”

Can hazardous waste supply chain ‘hotspots’ be identified using an input–output framework?

“…Jensen et al (2013) examine general waste attribution in a regional economic setting, taking a preliminary step towards the hotspot analyses presented here, but with no account of alternative management options (for allied waste analysis in an input-output framework, see also Choi et al, 2011;Xu and Zhang, 2009 …”