Representations of environmental concerns in cost-benefit analyses of solid waste recycling

The value of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) as a decision tool in the area of solid waste recycling is examined, centring on a review of how 37 'effect-by-effect' English language studies attempt to encapsulate the associated environmental issues. I identify five critical areas where CBAs are often inconsistent with each other, with popular views of recycling, or with other areas of policy. These are: the types of environmental impact and their valuation: the relevance of upstream externalities: whether there is a scarcity externality; the economic significance of householder efforts; and the need to drive towards long-term sustainability through eco-restructuring. Rather than the hard rationality it seems to promise, I conclude that CBA with environmental externality measurement and valuation has diverted debate from the public arena into technical complexities that are the preserve of experts, allowing space for analysts' ideological inclinations to be manifest and for commissioning agencies to procure results that suit their interests. I argue that the best CBAs are those with multiple levels of information, disaggregated environmental data, range values, sensitivity analysis, itemisation of excluded or unvalued elements, and, to the extent affordable, valuation by multiple methods. Expressed preference methods may produce valuations that accord with economic theory and are also more in tune with Popular opinion. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.