Influence and Counter Measures for Combating Monetary Inflation on A4 Paper Waste Recycling Industry in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Waste recycling is an important activity for the Local Authorities (LAs) to protect the health of the population and environment while prolonging the life of landfills. Recycling industries are constantly subjected to variations in transportation costs. The commodity prices too are affected with the escalation of fuel prices. The monetary value of the commodity can be considered to be the value of refined diesel in terms of energy, conceptually termed Commodity Price Energy Equivalent (CPEE). CPEE was applied as a test on A4 size paper, separating each of the energy flows in terms of percentages indexed to paper production E^, residual energy Er and services and transport Es. It resulted in 0.20,0.27 and 0.53, respectively for the current year. In recycling, these values became 0 .14,0.27 and 0.59. It provided a higher profit, as long as transport costs were low. In addition, residual values were profits for the producer and seller, thus made the paper worthless. In 2000, the values were 0.12, 0.17 and 0.71, respectively. Inevitably, the indexes of production and wastes have increased, while profits dwindled. Such reductions were due to exponential increase in diesel prices expressed as 24.93e0U3t and paper responded to inflation of 152.7 e01<m. In 2023, the price gap will be Rs 360/L for diesel and over Rs 1,200 A4 paper packet. Instead of Life Cycle Cost (LCC) calculations, CPEE indexing can provide host of information, like converting paper wastes to electricity or bio-char in combating inflation, thus Hotelling rule can be applied with modifications.