IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i14p5861-d387500.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Inverse Malthusianism and Recycling Economics: The Case of the Textile Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Francisco Salas-Molina

    (Department of Management “Juan José Renau Piqueras”, Faculty of Economics, Universitat de València, Av. Tarongers s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain)

  • David Pla-Santamaria

    (Department of Economics and Social Sciences, Higher Polytechnic School of Alcoi, Universitat Politècnica de València, Ferrándiz y Carbonell, 03801 Alcoi, Spain)

  • Maria Luisa Vercher-Ferrándiz

    (Department of Economics and Social Sciences, Higher Polytechnic School of Alcoi, Universitat Politècnica de València, Ferrándiz y Carbonell, 03801 Alcoi, Spain)

  • Javier Reig-Mullor

    (Department of Economics and Financial Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences and Law, Universitas Miguel Hernández, 03202 Elche, Spain)

Abstract

The current use of natural resources in the textile industry leads us to introduce a new economic concept called inverse Malthusianism describing a context in which population grows linearly and resource consumption grows exponentially. Inverse Malthusianism implies an exponential increase in environmental impact that recycling may contribute to reduce. Our main goal is to extend the analysis of materials selection under the principle of equimarginality proposed by Jevons. As a first result, we show the particular circumstances under which policies excluding recycled supplies are never optimal. We also aim to overcome the difficulties of reducing environmental aspects to monetary units. To this end, we propose a multicriteria approach to solve the conventional-recycled materials dilemma considering not only economic but also environmental criteria. Then, we allow producers to enrich their decision-making process with relevant information about the environmental impact of materials selection. Although we use examples of the textile industry to illustrate our results, most of the insights in this paper can be extended to other industries.

Suggested Citation

  • Francisco Salas-Molina & David Pla-Santamaria & Maria Luisa Vercher-Ferrándiz & Javier Reig-Mullor, 2020. "Inverse Malthusianism and Recycling Economics: The Case of the Textile Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-20, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:14:p:5861-:d:387500
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/14/5861/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/14/5861/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Walter R. Stahel, 2016. "The circular economy," Nature, Nature, vol. 531(7595), pages 435-438, March.
    2. Ana Garcia-Bernabeu & Adolfo Hilario-Caballero & David Pla-Santamaria & Francisco Salas-Molina, 2020. "A Process Oriented MCDM Approach to Construct a Circular Economy Composite Index," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-14, January.
    3. Dylan Jones & Mehrdad Tamiz, 2010. "Practical Goal Programming," International Series in Operations Research and Management Science, Springer, edition 1, number 978-1-4419-5771-9, September.
    4. R. M. Solow, 1974. "Intergenerational Equity and Exhaustible Resources," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 41(5), pages 29-45.
    5. Harold Hotelling, 1931. "The Economics of Exhaustible Resources," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39(2), pages 137-137.
    6. Roy, Joyashree, 2000. "The rebound effect: some empirical evidence from India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(6-7), pages 433-438, June.
    7. Mas-Colell, Andreu & Whinston, Michael D. & Green, Jerry R., 1995. "Microeconomic Theory," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195102680.
    8. Chapagain, A.K. & Hoekstra, A.Y. & Savenije, H.H.G. & Gautam, R., 2006. "The water footprint of cotton consumption: An assessment of the impact of worldwide consumption of cotton products on the water resources in the cotton producing countries," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 186-203, November.
    9. Kirsi Laitala & Ingun Grimstad Klepp & Beverley Henry, 2018. "Does Use Matter? Comparison of Environmental Impacts of Clothing Based on Fiber Type," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-25, July.
    10. Romero, Carlos, 1997. "Multicriteria decision analysis and environmental economics: An approximation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 81-89, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Grazia Dicuonzo & Graziana Galeone & Simona Ranaldo & Mario Turco, 2020. "The Key Drivers of Born-Sustainable Businesses: Evidence from the Italian Fashion Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-16, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Basu, Parantap & Jamasb, Tooraj & Sen, Anupama, 2023. "Trilemma or Trinity? The Nexus of Economic Growth, Circular Economy and Net Zero," Working Papers 10-2023, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Economics.
    2. Grimaud, André, 2001. "Natural Resources, Knowledge and Efficiency: Beyond the Hotelling Rule?," IDEI Working Papers 134, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
    3. Seyhan, Demet & Weikard, Hans-Peter & van Ierland, Ekko, 2012. "An economic model of long-term phosphorus extraction and recycling," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 103-108.
    4. Millar, Neal & McLaughlin, Eoin & Börger, Tobias, 2019. "The Circular Economy: Swings and Roundabouts?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 11-19.
    5. Alcott, Blake, 2008. "The sufficiency strategy: Would rich-world frugality lower environmental impact," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(4), pages 770-786, February.
    6. Figueroa B., Eugenio & Orihuela R., Carlos & Calfucura T., Enrique, 2010. "Green accounting and sustainability of the Peruvian metal mining sector," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 156-167, September.
    7. Schilling, Markus & Chiang, Lichun, 2011. "The effect of natural resources on a sustainable development policy: The approach of non-sustainable externalities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 990-998, February.
    8. Agnani, Betty & Gutierrez, Maria-Jose & Iza, Amaia, 2005. "Growth in overlapping generation economies with non-renewable resources," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 387-407, September.
    9. Gregory Casey & Ryo Horii, 2019. "A Multi-factor Uzawa Growth Theorem and Endogenous Capital-Augmenting Technological Change," ISER Discussion Paper 1051, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    10. Beatriz Gaitan S. & Richard S.J. Tol & I. Hakan Yetkiner, 2006. "The Hotelling’s Rule Revisited in a Dynamic General Equilibrium Model," Papers of the Annual IUE-SUNY Cortland Conference in Economics, in: Oguz Esen & Ayla Ogus (ed.), Proceedings of the Conference on Human and Economic Resources, pages 213-238, Izmir University of Economics.
    11. José Daniel López-Barrientos & Ekaterina Viktorovna Gromova & Ekaterina Sergeevna Miroshnichenko, 2020. "Resource Exploitation in a Stochastic Horizon under Two Parametric Interpretations," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-29, July.
    12. Barreto, Raul A., 2018. "Fossil fuels, alternative energy and economic growth," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 196-220.
    13. Samuel Fankhauser & Nicholas Stern, 2016. "Climate change, development, poverty and economics," GRI Working Papers 253, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    14. V.Martinet & L. Doyen, 2003. "Sustainable management of an exhaustible resource:a viable control model," THEMA Working Papers 2003-36, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    15. Renaud Coulomb & Oskar Lecuyer & Adrien Vogt-Schilb, 2019. "Optimal Transition from Coal to Gas and Renewable Power Under Capacity Constraints and Adjustment Costs," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 73(2), pages 557-590, June.
    16. Martinet, Vincent & Rotillon, Gilles, 2007. "Invariance in growth theory and sustainable development," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 31(8), pages 2827-2846, August.
    17. Frederick Ploeg, 2011. "Rapacious Resource Depletion, Excessive Investment and Insecure Property Rights: A Puzzle," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 48(1), pages 105-128, January.
    18. Hinh T. Dinh & Russel Dinh, 2016. "Managing Natural Resources for Growth and Prosperity in Low Income Countries," Research papers & Policy papers 1600, Policy Center for the New South.
    19. Daniele Schilirò, 2019. "Sustainability, Innovation, and Efficiency: A Key Relationship," Palgrave Studies in Impact Finance, in: Magdalena Ziolo & Bruno S. Sergi (ed.), Financing Sustainable Development, chapter 0, pages 83-102, Palgrave Macmillan.
    20. Baumgärtner, Stefan & Quaas, Martin, 2010. "Sustainability economics -- General versus specific, and conceptual versus practical," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 2056-2059, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:14:p:5861-:d:387500. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.