“Overview of Economics of Waste Disposal and …Contents 1. Present circumstances of waste...

“Overview of Economics of Waste Disposal and Recycling in Japan:

Toward a Circular Economy” 23rd October 2018 Eiji B. HOSODA

Faculty of Economics Keio University

The 3R Conference for Asian Local Governments

Contents

1. Present circumstances of waste disposal and

recycling in Japan 2. International aspects of waste disposal and

recycling 3. Circular Economy: A New Trend 4. Concluding remarks: Future of a circular

economy

23rd October 2018 E. Hosoda, Faculty of Economics, Keio University 2

1. Present circumstances of waste disposal and recycling in Japan


Material flow in Japan

23rd October 2018 E. Hosoda, Faculty of Economics, Keio University

4


Trend of discharge of MSW

Landfill of municipal solid waste


Capacity of landfill for municipal solid waste


Remaining capacity

(million m3)

Remaining years

Fiscal year Remaining

capacity Remaining

years

Source: Ministry of Environment

The trend of recycling rates


0

10

20

30

40

50

60

一般廃棄物産業廃棄物 MSW Industrial waste

9

Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law Law for Promotion of Effective

Utilization of Resources

Law for Promotion of

Sorted Collection and Recycling of Containers and

Packaging

The Basic Environment Law

Basic Environment Plan

<Promotion of regeneration> <Proper treatment of wastes>

Regulation according to the character of individual products

Law Concerning the Promotion of Procurement of Eco-Friendly Goods and Services by the State and Other Entities (the central government taking initiatives in procurement of recycled products)

Law for Recycling of

Specified Kinds of Home

Appliances

Law on Recycling

Food Wastes

Law Concerning Recycling of Materials for Construction

Works

End-of-Life Vehicles

Recycling Law

Securing material circulation in society Reducing natural resource consumption Reducing environmental loads

Basic Act on Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society (the Basic Framework Law)

Fundamental Plan for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society: bases for central government’s other plans

Legal System to establish a Sound Material-Cycle Society

Law for Recycling of

Small Electric & Electronic Appliances

23rd October 2018 E. Hosoda, Faculty of Economics, Keio University

Containers and Packaging Recycling Act


PRO

Money flow

Containers and packages

flow

Home Appliance Recycling Act


Automobile Recycling

Act


Small Home Appliance Recycling Act


2. International aspects of waste disposal and recycling


A new trend of material circulation: international perspective

• Asian countries such as China, Vietnam, Thailand and so on are developing and growing fast.

• They are absorbing not only natural resources but used products, parts and materials, in order to extract resources substitutable for natural resources.

• As a result, those countries import used products, parts and materials from Japan, EU and other developed countries.


Problems in trans-boundary recycling

• Some of developing countries do not have equipment with which they can promote recycling without pollution, so that pollution potential of waste may be easily realized.

• Legal systems are different among countries, so that waste often is transacted among them, against the Basel Convention.

• The Basel Convention restricts trans-boundary transport of hazardous/toxic waste, but it is often ignored.


Used PET bottles recycled out of the framework of the law


Most of these bottles are anticipated to go abroad.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

131 154 174 192 170

140 141

31 34 38 46 82

128 144

千トン

年度

指定法人経由／独自処理分別収集量の推移

独自処理ルート指定法人ルート

出典：『PETボトルリサイクル年次報告書（2007年度版）』PETボトルリサイクル推進協議会

Independent route Designated route

1000 tons


Export of used plastic from Japan

0.0%

1.0%

2.0%

3.0%

4.0%

5.0%

6.0%

7.0%

8.0%

9.0%

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

輸出

量(万

トン

)

（年）

香港

中華人民共和国

台湾

その他

発生量に対する輸出量の割合


Export of used paper from Japan

0.0%

2.0%

4.0%

6.0%

8.0%

10.0%

12.0%

14.0%

16.0%

18.0%

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

輸出

量(万

トン

)

（年）


台湾

タイ

その他

発生量に対する輸出量の割

合


Export of scrap aluminum from Japan

0.0%

0.2%

0.4%

0.6%

0.8%

1.0%

1.2%

1.4%

1.6%

1.8%

2.0%

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

輸出

量(万

トン

)

（年）


香港

韓国

その他

発生量に対する輸出

量の割合


Export of scrap copper from Japan

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

輸出量(

万トン)

（年）


香港

韓国

その他

発生量に対する輸出

量の割合


Illegal incineration in China

A new trend of the trans-boundary recycling

• China has recently banned imports of end-of-use products, parts and materials by so-called Green Fence and National Sword policies.

• Other East Asian countries are following this action.

• As a result, waste plastics are piling up in stock-yards in Japan, EU and other developed countries.



To promote sound recycling in an international perspective

• Flows of waste from advanced countries to developing countries must be controlled and accountable.

• A legal system to promote sound recycling must be arranged in each developing country.

• Transfer of recycling technology with high quality must be made between developed and developing countries.


Basel Convention

• Trans-boundary transport of used products, parts and materials must be restricted.

• Particularly, it must basically be prohibited between developed and developing countries.

• To observe the convention, it is crucial that activities of informal sectors are strictly controlled.

3. Circular Economy: A New Trend


Market and institutional infrastructure

• To promote effective and efficient material circulation, we must construct a well-designed institutional infrastructure to support markets for circulatory use of resources.

• A market without any environmental constraint should never realize a sound circular economy.

• Here, institutional infrastructure is defined as the whole of legal system, administrative apparatus, social norm, moral codes, business customs, and so on, which regulate human behavior.


The relationship of between material circulation and institutional infrastructure


Institutional infrastructure (Hard law + Soft law)

Market

Arterial flow

Venous flow

Inflow : natural resources

Outflow : waste Bads

Circulatory use of

resources

Manufacturing industries

Recycling/waste management industries

EPR EPR

The role of industries • Without well-designed institutional infrastructure,

it should be hard to promote smooth circulatory use of resources.

• To connect arterial and venous flows, policies such as EPR must be wisely used, so that manufacturing industries pursue more efficient use of resources on one hand and further reduction of waste on the other.

• At the same time, recycling/waste management industries are required to promote proper treatment of waste and to upgrade recycling.


A key issue • A crucial matter in a sound circular economy is to

make a society in which as much waste as is transformed into goods with reasonable costs, so that the amount of landfill is minimized.

• Extended producer responsibility is one of the important policy concepts for constructing a circular economy.

• Voluntary action based upon so-called soft law is also important for construction of a sound circular economy.



The amount of waste generation in Japan is relatively small considering the size of its GDP.

Source: Amount of generated municipal waste in each country; OECD Environmental Data Compendium 2002 GDP per person; IMF (April 2004) World Economic Outlook Database

Per capita GDP

Per c

apita

am

ount

of w

aste

ge

nera

tion

Dollars/person-year

Russia

Italy France

Canada

Germany

USA

UK

Japan

Note: GDP data are as of 2002 Data for the amount of waste generation are as of 2000 (Canada as of 1990, Russia 1995).

Per capita GDP and the amount of waste generation in major countries

Source: Ministry of Environment

(kg)

International comparison of per capita industrial-waste emission

23rd October 2018 32 E. Hosoda, Faculty of Economics, Keio University

Source: Annual Report on the Environment, the Sound Material-Cycle Society and the Biodiversity in Japan (2012)

There is room for further efforts on industrial sides to reduce waste.

Input of natural resources in Japan



International comparison of resource productivity

23rd October 2018 34 E. Hosoda, Faculty of Economics, Keio University


4. Concluding remarks


Concluding remarks (1) • We will soon get into the declining stage of

natural resources. • On the other hand, we are running out of landfill

space. • We must promote circulatory use of natural

resources in an effective and efficient way, transforming as much as bads into goods.

• To do this, we should construct a well-designed institutional infrastructure which supports market transaction of natural and venous resources.


Concluding remarks (2)

• Following the spirit of EPR, manufacturing industries must pursue saving of natural resource input on one hand, and contribute to reduction of waste generation on the other.

• Recycling and waste management industries are encouraged to be more efficient and more matured, so that they could enhance circulatory use of resources further.

• We should make a sound circular economy in an East Asian region.

23rd October 2018 E. Hosoda, Faculty of Economics, Keio

University 37

Concluding remarks (3)

• To construct a circular economy, we have to make a step further, introducing policy concepts such as resource efficiency and end-of-waste.

• EU has already proceeded in this direction. • Other advanced countries, including Japan,

possibly follow the course.


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