Environmental Externalities of Secondhand Markets—Based on a Dutch Auctioning Company

Buying reused products rather than new ones could reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). There are many aspects that can influence whether used products actually cause emissions to increase or decrease. This paper assesses the effects of secondhand markets on GHG emissions by using data on twelve product categories from Troostwijk Auctions, which is a Dutch auctioning company. Data came from a carbon footprint database, survey data and many other sources. The net impact of secondhand trade is calculated by combining existing formulas in the literature and by performing regressions to... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Martijn Mak
Reinout Heijungs
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2022
Reihe/Periodikum: Sustainability, Vol 14, Iss 1682, p 1682 (2022)
Verlag/Hrsg.: MDPI AG
Schlagwörter: carbon footprint / secondhand products / reuse / product life extension / Monte Carlo simulation / Environmental effects of industries and plants / TD194-195 / Renewable energy sources / TJ807-830 / Environmental sciences / GE1-350
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-28989596
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031682

Buying reused products rather than new ones could reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). There are many aspects that can influence whether used products actually cause emissions to increase or decrease. This paper assesses the effects of secondhand markets on GHG emissions by using data on twelve product categories from Troostwijk Auctions, which is a Dutch auctioning company. Data came from a carbon footprint database, survey data and many other sources. The net impact of secondhand trade is calculated by combining existing formulas in the literature and by performing regressions to estimate the values of unknown data. A methodology is proposed to find appropriate assumptions to handle uncertainty of carbon footprints. The main result is that the emission savings due to reuse of almost all products in the analysis are offset because many buyers purchase goods that they would not have bought new. Trade in the vehicles included in this study even adds emissions.