32 April 2012
The face of
recycling in a
green economy
Recycling has many impacts on
our day-to-day lives – some of
them quite industrial and others
more social in nature. But what
exactly is the role of recycling in
the pursuit of a green economy?
And, not unimportantly, what
does a green future entail? A
recent report ‘Earnings, jobs and
innovation: the role of recycling
in a green economy’, published
by the European Environment
Agency, sets out to answer these
questions.
Many European countries have placed recycling at the heart of their policies.
Over the last 15 years, the EU’s to-do list has
grown to include a wide array of environment-
related subjects, from demolition waste to end-
of-life vehicles. Furthermore, modern objec-
tives and legislation have brought benefits for
both the industry as well as for the people
working in this sector.
‘Promoting recycling offers various important
economic and social benefits, like generating
economic growth, fostering innovation, help-
ing secure access to critical resources and boost-
ing employment,’ says Özgür Saki, Project
Manager on the European Environment Agen-
cy (EEA) report.
Employment increase
‘Although it is difficult to judge employment
results in the recycling sector because Eurostat
employment data don’t focus in detail on recy-
E C O N O M Y By Kirstin Linnenkoper
cling, for as far as we can document a signifi-
cant increase has developed,’ notes Christian
Fischer, Chief Consultant at the Denmark-
based European Topic Centre on Sustainable
Consumption and Production (ETC/SCP) and
EEA report Task Manager. ‘Employment rates
have grown very steadily, from 422 inhabitants
per million in 2000 to 611 in 2007, which is an
increase of nearly 50%.’
Apart from employing more and more people,
the recycling industry has also had a very
positive effect on the type of jobs created. ‘The
waste business as such may not be character-
ised by high-skilled jobs but, unlike landfills,
recycling does actually manage to create jobs
on a medium and even high-skilled level,
ranging from material collection, handling
and processing to engineering and maintain-
ing products,’ explains Mr Fischer. This can
be seen as one of the benefits of better waste
management.
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