Séminaire doctorants – Rémi GIRARD

Abstract: Energy efficiency is an important feature of the energy transition. The European Union aims to further improve its energy efficiency by 11.7% at horizon 2030. Concurrently, The EU is promoting recycling by targeting a 60% rate of recycling for municipal solid waste. However, the interplay between these two factors remains to be fully elucidated. The central question guiding this study is whether recycling contributes to enhanced energy efficiency and whether its benefits are limited to specific waste categories. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between energy efficiency and recycling. Using a panel for the 28 countries of the EU spanning from 2004 to 2018, we show that (i) recycling decreases the energy efficiency in the EU and that (ii) Plastics is the only materials that actually increase the energy efficiency.