Quality Tale - News on Technology: Economics and the Environment

Two new large-scale infrastructure projects are planned for Poland: a 2,600-kilometre motorway network and a cascade of dams on the Vistula River. Poland currently has only 300 kilometres of existing motorways. This is seen as a barrier to commercial transport passing from East to West Europe. Look at the potential costs and benefits shown on the slide opposite.

Which is more important - the economic benefits of the infrastructure projects or the environmental damage caused and increased pollution from the tripling of road traffic?

What will the overall effects on Poland be, if the projects fail to generate enough revenue to repay the original loans?

What methods could you use to decide if the projects should go ahead?

Costs of waste and pollution abatement:

As resources become more scarce, they become more expensive. Many companies are now adding up the costs of raw materials and trying to find ways of reducing the amount of material required to make their products. This can lead to substantial economic gain, as well as reducing demand for nonrenewable resources.

The cost of retro-fitting pollution control technology is now so high that many companies prefer to reduce pollution at source through the use of clean technology and best practices. When companies expand or up-date their process, cleaner technology can be built into the design. However, for many companies, the cost of replacing existing processes with clean ones is excessive.

Waste and emissions minimization strategies have also lead to impressive savings for many companies. Again, reducing waste at source is the best option but recycling and re-use of materials has also become more common.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Economics and the Environment