Tutorial 6: Recycling

Motivation

Building on ABC Country's sales permitting system from Tutorial 5, we'll now add a recovery and recycling program targeting the same HFC-134a domestic refrigeration sector. This demonstrates how recycling policies work and explores the introduction of secondary substance in addition to the virgin substance we've been manipulating so far.

Adding the Recycling Policy

Let's create ABC's recovery program:

• Click Add Policy and name it "Domestic Recycling"
• Select Domestic Refrigeration as the application and HFC-134a as the substance
• Go to the Recycle tab and click Add Recycling
• Set 20% recovery with 90% reuse.
• Let's have this happen at recharge (at the point of servicing).
• Start in year 2027.
• Click Save

Add Simulations

Add both a Recycling simulation with just Domestic Recycling selected. Then, add a combined simulation with both Sales Permit and Domestic Recycling included. Again, use years 2025 to 2035.

Results

Piecing together what is going on with multiple policies can take a little work but let's dig in. For this, go ahead and enable Attribute initial charge to importer just to make it easier to reason about how volumes are shifting.

First, using the Consumption radio button, recycling cuts down on overall virgin substance, either imported or domestic. This is unlike the caps we introduced previously which simply move that consumption between substances even if there is a little decrease due to changes in equipment propeorties. Even so, the combined policies encounter a small snag: moving more substance to R-600a means there's less HFC-134a to recycle late in the simulation. In a later tutorial, we will address this by adding a R-600a recycling program!

Next, the Emissions radio button tells a more interesting story where recycling from servicing fails to keep up with demand so, eventually, BAU and the recycling scenario trend together. This is where the combination of policies may be effective. Once we add in the cap as well, the two complement each other to achieve a higher impact than either on their own.

Conclusion

You've successfully implemented ABC Country's comprehensive HFC-134a strategy combining permitting and recycling policies. This tutorial demonstrated how recycling appears as an alternative supply source and complements demand-side restrictions for maximum policy effectiveness.

Download the completed tutorial: tutorial_06.qta - this contains the complete model with combined permitting and recycling policies

Next Steps

Tutorial 7 will transition from the UI-based interface to direct QubecTalk programming. You'll discover that you've been programming all along and learn to implement advanced multi-substance policies only possible through direct coding. QubecTalk also makes it easier to modify simulations faster. For example, this can help with switching from tonnes of substance to equipment unit counts. While technically possible in the UI, we will find in Tutorial 8 that those kinds of changes may be much more efficient through code.

Previous: Tutorial 5 | Next: Tutorial 7