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Urban and regional development of municipalities and also industrial progress of the last decades lead to the generation of a high amount of household and production waste, with an important fraction of recyclable waste. Almost 40% from these are paper and cardboard waste. Paper and cardboard manufacturing is one of the most dynamic industrial sectors which addresses very seriously the concept of circular economy, by closing the production loop, since it is able to valorize the recovered paper at a high degree. However, there are production waste, generated during cardboard and corrugated packaging manufacturing, which can be further revaluated “in plant” for the production of various subassemblies or products. This way, the transport of production waste to the paper mill (for” off-site recycling”) is avoided, production waste is turned into resource and the new products and/or subassemblies can be delivered on the market eco-efficiently, at reasonable price, with low impact in the environment, since they are entirely recyclable and biodegradable.

In this context, the present study developed an analysis of the efficiency, expressed in terms of costs and benefits and assessed by applying a method specific to Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA), for an eco-product (Eco-P) manufactured from production waste, in the context of eco-innovation and eco-design principles. The results showed that turning production waste into raw material by reusing it in the form of a marketable eco-product improves significantly process eco-efficiency by closing the loop, reduces eco-costs and increase the benefit/cost ratio.