Abatement cost curves: a viable management tool for enabling the achievement of win–win waste reduction strategies?

Environmental regulation of industrial activity is generally believed to have a negative impact on the industry. Recent literature has suggested, however, that reducing industrial waste outputs can, in some circumstances, result in a ‘win–win’, or at least ‘win–draw’, scenario for industry and the environment. The viability of using the abatement cost curve method as a management tool to enable the achievement of a ‘win–win’ state is investigated here. Copper pollution in the Humber Estuary is used as a case-study, and the abatement cost curve methodology proves to be a valuable tool in identifying barriers to achieving the win–win state, and also in providing future direction for the waste management strategy. Abatement cost curves are concluded to be powerful management tools which greatly improve the transparency of waste reduction information.