Evaluating the impacts of waste treatment management modes on each sector's price in a macro economic system

This paper created an Input-Occupancy-Output (IOO) table that was integrated with several alternative waste treatment management modes. Based on this table, a Ghosh price model was developed to evaluate the price changes in each sector compared with their traditional prices for the direct and indirect impacts of the costs of waste treatment management modes. The model was applied to the waste water treatment case in China. The data were sourced from the China Statistical Bureau and a survey made by Tan et al. (2015). In each waste treatment management mode, the price change of each sector was evaluated. The results revealed that different waste treatment management modes generated different ranks for the price changes by sector. There are 22 sectors whose prices increase are mainly caused by other sectors’ added waste water treatment costs. An optimal combination of two waste treatment management modes for 42 sectors generates the minimum price increase for all industries. To limit the waste water discharged in China, one possible intervention would be to increase the fine imposed for unit waste water discharged, setting it at a higher level than the unit waste water discharge fee and its treatment cost. Furthermore, it is suggested that the waste water treatment cost needs to be reasonably incorporated in the products’ prices. The model proposed in this paper will be particularly appropriate to evaluate these price increases and their impacts.