A Study on the Calculation of the Standard Recycling Cost of PVC Profiles and Flooring Waste in Korea

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Thank you for allowing me to review this manuscript.

The article discusses the very interesting issue of PVC recycling. The very long life of many products made of PVC is coming to an end of its lifetime so the amount of recycled material should increase every year. Although the research concerns only the Korean market, they obtained quite extensive source data thanks to this. The work's methodology and scope are simplified, making converting the reported values for other markets easy. The article, moreover, is written in an accessible manner and is understandable to the non-economics specialist reader.

I have a few editorial comments on the article:

1. please improve the literature selection and include articles on PVC recycling no older than 3-5 years.

2. please correct the spelling of PVC - it should be poly(vinyl chloride)

3. v. 19 should be 11.35 million USD

4. are the photos in fig 1 taken by the authors and it is not required to add source information?

5. fig 6. space error in spelling CaCO3 Mixing

6. v 233 - error .....manpower, s

 

I think the article is well-written and can be published with minor corrections.

Author Response

All the advice you gave has been corrected. Thank you for your nice comments.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Improvement suggestions:

. the quality of the images shown in figures 1. 5 and 7
. better formatting of tables, namely tables 2 and 3, and also
. better formatting of some tables, namely tables 2 and 3, and also of some parts of the text, namely the position of Figure 5 and the legends of figures 3 and 7.

. This study aims to calculate the standard recycling cost and the recycling market size of the PVC for preparing the EPR system in Korea. It makes an analysis of recycling costs based on a vast collection of information. I think it would become more interesting if the authors presented advantages of recycling and relationships with environmental, social and economic issues in the face of recycling costs which, as they conclude, tend to to go up.

 

Author Response

. the quality of the images shown in figures 1. 5 and 7

→ Replaced with better quality images.

. better formatting of tables, namely tables 2 and 3, and also

→ Edited table.

 

. better formatting of some tables, namely tables 2 and 3, and also of some parts of the text, namely the position of Figure 5 and the legends of figures 3 and 7.
→ It's hard to understand what you're advice, but I've corrected it as much as possible.

. This study aims to calculate the standard recycling cost and the recycling market size of the PVC for preparing the EPR system in Korea. It makes an analysis of recycling costs based on a vast collection of information. I think it would become more interesting if the authors presented advantages of recycling and relationships with environmental, social and economic issues in the face of recycling costs which, as they conclude, tend to to go up.
→ We tried to add related references, but it was difficult to find references related to the increase in pvc recycling costs. Please understand this.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf