Recycling and Landfilling in a Dynamic Sraffian Model: Application of the Corn–guano Model to a Waste Treatment problem

Landfill sites may be regarded as input for a waste treatment process. Considering landfill as an exhaustible resource, we apply a basic corn–guano model to a waste treatment problem. We show how dynamic substitution between landfilling and recycling occurs. Namely, in an early stage, landfill disposal is adopted as waste treatment and a recycling process is not activated. Once an economy faces exhaustion of landfill, a recycling process is activated as a backstop technology. We refer to the possibility that an economy may be unstable after exhaustion of landfill, even if it enjoys stable growth at the early stage. Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2001.