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Lecture 2 - Economics and Financing of Waste Management

1. Economics and Financing of Waste Management

1.3. What is the objective of economy and how can we measure it's success?

In the German Law on the stability of the econmic development, four factors were decided upon that would ensure economic growth and thus the livelihood of the citizens. 
However, this follows the model which single outs economy from its nested position in the environment (environmental and anthropogenic alike) and describes the constant flows of In- and Outputs from businesses and households.
The modern Economist Kate Raworth showed the limits of this model and introduces her Donught model as a closer approximation of reality. Listen to her TED-Talk for an explanation of the models shown in the slides.

Finances Part 2 by German-MENA University Network & Prevent Waste Alliance (CC BY)
In order to include the missing environmental and social boundaries in economic theory, it is currently discussed if other modal objectives should be added to the German Econmic Stability Law, such as environmental protection and fair distribution of income and wealth. That however would be quite unbalanced in comparison to four very specific economic goals from the traditional model. Another idea would be to use the Sustainability Development Goals [Herlyn & Lévy-Tödter 2020; UNEP 2015].