Does recycling save trees according to economics?
You could at least make the argument that recycling paper would not save trees. There are at least four ways you could do this. • If recycled paper will cost more than paper from trees, then the recycled paper will not really be able to compete with regular paper and will not save trees. • Even if it is cheaper, you could say that it would increase the supply of paper. This would lead to there being a higher equilibrium quantity of paper supplied and demanded. It could be that the new quantity would be high enough that more trees would have to be cut down to meet it. • If there’s less demand for paper, fewer trees will be planted to meet the demand so there will be fewer trees. • Most of the trees being cut down aren’t for paper anyway so that won’t help.
