Import Ban Research Articles

Recycling Past and Present and the New Innovation Challenge for Materials at End-of-Life

Recycling is critical for the drive towards a circular economy and sustainable materials. More than ever, consumers, industries, governments, and academics are looking at end-of-life materials processing with the simultaneous goals of reducing emissions and energy consumption from primary materials production, encouraging sustainable practices, and securing the supply chains of key materials. However, attention on recycling practices and markets has been inconsistent over the years and critical market trends were largely unnoticed up until three years ago. Consequently, when China instituted its import ban on over 20 classes of recycled materials that failed to meet its strict low contamination limit in 2018, widespread and immediate global repercussions were felt throughout the recycling industry, particularly in the United States (U.S.). To understand the magnitude of this most recent market disruption to the U.S. recycling industry, it is instructive to trace recycling’s origins and evolution to identify where the recycling model has succeeded and where there exist opportunities for improvement. In this vein, this assessment gives a brief overview of the historical development of recycling in the U.S., the state of the industry today, and a discussion of specific materials classes where recycling has achieved varying degrees of success. By providing this context, this assessment aims to generate a discussion based on a systems-wide approach and provide examples of intervention strategies that help move communities toward more sustainable materials management.

Chemical recycling: A critical assessment of potential process approaches.

Increased media coverage of plastic pollution in the environment and import bans on plastic waste in several countries have resulted in plastic waste becoming one of the most discussed waste streams in recent years. In the European Union (EU), only about one-third of the post-consumer plastic waste is recycled; the rest goes to energy recovery and landfilling in equal parts. In connection to the necessary increase in efforts to achieve the ambitious EU recycling targets, chemical recycling is currently receiving more and more attention. The assumption is that chemical recycling processes could open up new waste streams for recycling and generate valuable raw materials for the chemical industry. Although there exists no legal definition for chemical recycling, there is more or less agreement that it covers the conversion of plastic polymers into their monomers or chemical building blocks. Techniques such as gasification, pyrolysis and liquefaction as well as solvolysis can be used for chemical recycling. So far, only few large-scale plants for chemical recycling exist worldwide. This article presents the different processes by means of examples from (formerly) running installations and their suitability for plastics recycling is assessed. However, to date, only few chemical recycling plants are in continuous operation, and further scientific evidence for the ecological and economic benefits is still necessary for final evaluation.

Fast Fashion, Charities, and the Circular Economy: Challenges for Operations Management

Textile waste is one of the most pollutant items globally, being strongly affected by fast fashion (FF) products. Public pressure has made many FF firms voluntarily collect a small fraction of their preowned items and export them to developing countries for reuse. However, some developing countries are launching import bans on second‐hand clothes. In addition, FF firms may soon be forced by extended producer responsibility legislation to collect more preowned items for reuse and recycling. To date, they do not have sufficient capacity to deal with this. Charities have been the key collectors and recyclers of unwanted clothes. Therefore, charities could help FF firms increase their capacity in this reverse supply chain (SC). However, we hardly witness such a collaboration for two main reasons: (i) charities prefer to sell high‐quality preowned items in the primary market to generate the highest possible revenue and FF firms may fear cannibalization, (ii) many charities believe that FF firms generate quantities of low‐quality items that require collection and sorting while being difficult to sell in the primary market. Charities also face competition from many small for‐profit organizations selling FF preowned items. While charities have the support of volunteers, they tend to be less efficient. This work urges Operations Management (OM) researchers to suggest innovative business models to help (i) FF firms and charities collaborate to solve the abovementioned issues, and (ii) charities to improve their traditional practices for competitiveness. This study is primarily a position paper highlighting some challenges and introducing interesting research problems. Although the paper is not a research paper, it follows a qualitative research method to collect and analyze the required supporting documents to justify arguments and statements. We collected primary and secondary data from the textile reverse SC members to familiarize the OM community with this context. The current changes in the textile reverse SC offer many great opportunities for impactful OM research.

The impact of the Russian import ban on EU agrarian exports

The main goal of the paper is to evaluate the impact of the Russian import ban on the development of agricultural exports from EU member states. The study is based on a time-series analysis of empirical statistical indicators. The analysed period is between 2009 and 2019. The source of data for individual analyses is UN Comtrade (2021). The evaluation of export performance is extended by hierarchical cluster analysis. The study quantifies the effects of the import ban on the EU and individual member states through two scenarios. Scenario 1 is based on the cumulative loss of the value of exports. Scenario 2 assumes a continuous development of the value of agricultural exports. Based on the results, it is possible to confirm that the application of the Russian food import ban had a significant impact on EU countries. The impact of sanctions varies across EU countries. Four specific clusters could be identified in the period under investigation. In the period after the ban, the distribution of individual countries among individual clusters changed significantly. The applied ban could be understood not only as an attempt at counter-sanctions. Import restrictions also aim to reduce Russia's dependence on food imports and promote national food security.

Prospect of sorghum development as corn substitution in Indonesia

This paper explores the opportunities for the development of sorghum to reduce imports of corn. Besides being the primary raw material for poultry feed, corn is the second staple-food ingredient after rice. Still, the increase in corn production is not in line with the demand for corn due to the increasing population. This condition has resulted in the need for corn to be imported, while the government has imposed an import ban since 2017. It is necessary to have other commodities that can substitute corn as food as sorghum. Sorghum farming produces not only sorghum seeds but also plant waste which can use for a ruminant feed so that the availability of ruminant feed continues. Sorghum farming needs to be developed so that the availability of food and feed can sustain. The development of sorghum should be in areas where there is a feed industry to ensure the sorghum market for farmers and the availability of raw materials. The development can also be in areas that have long consumed sorghum (local food).

Effect of China's Import Ban on Plastic Waste Trade of the U.S. Fifty States

Effect of China's Import Ban on Plastic Waste Trade of the U.S. Fifty States

РЕАЛИЗАЦИЯ ПЛАНОВ ПО ИМПОРТОЗАМЕЩЕНИЮ В ВЫСОКОТЕХНОЛОГИЧНЫХ ОТРАСЛЯХ ОТЕЧЕСТВЕННОЙ ПРОМЫШЛЕННОСТИ В УСЛОВИЯХ ВНЕШНИХ САНКЦИЙ

The article discusses the implementation of plans for import substitution in high-tech sectors of domestic industry in the conditions of external sanctions on the example of the pharmaceutical industry and mechanical engineering. In the context of restrictions on the import of technologies and equipment into our country, there were problems associated with the replacement of products that fell under the import ban, as well as problems with the development of localization of the main production segments, in particular, in the machine-­building industry. The issues of assessing the effectiveness of the implementation of import substitution plans in the pharmaceutical industry, the causes and factors of the slowdown of the import substitution policy, improving the effectiveness of the import substitution policy in the pharmaceutical industry, proposed measures for import substitution in mechanical engineering, as well as directions for improving state support for high-tech manufacturing industries to solve import substitution problems.

Impact Assessment of the EU Import Ban on Indonesian Palm Oil: Using Environmental Extended Multi-Scale Mriot

Impact Assessment of the EU Import Ban on Indonesian Palm Oil: Using Environmental Extended Multi-Scale Mriot

Drafting International Sales Contracts to Avoid Force Majeure Issues Due to Import Bans on Genetically Modified Crops

Drafting International Sales Contracts to Avoid Force Majeure Issues Due to Import Bans on Genetically Modified Crops

Waste Import and Air Pollution: Evidence from China's Waste Import Ban

In this paper, we investigate the impact of China's policy in 2017 to ban waste imports on air pollution. We exploit the difference-in-differences strategy, which combines the time variation and the cross-prefecture variation in the waste import before the policy change. We find that prefectures importing more waste in the pre-policy period experience more improvement of air quality after the policy shock. This effect is stronger in regions with loose environmental regulations and poor waste utilizing capacity. Further investigation shows that reduced burning of the unrecyclable waste and reduced industrial production are channels through which the waste import ban policy reduces air pollution.

The impact of the Sanctions and Counter Sanctions on the Russian and EU Member States Economies

This paper analyzes the consequences of the diplomatic conflict that began in 2014 between the European Union and the Russian Federation caused by the political and military crisis in Ukraine. In March 2014, the leaders of the European Union condemned the actions of Russia in Ukraine and imposed the first restrictive measures against Russian Federation. In turn, Russia took retaliatory measures materialised in an import ban on certain agricultural food products from the EU. The aim of this research is to identify and evaluate the impact of the sanctions and countersanctions on the economy of the Russian Federation and on bilateral trade between Russia and EU member states. This article will focus on the following main objectives: analyzing the evolution of trade relations between the two major powers in the period 2014-2019, determining the factors that may explain the decline in bilateral trade during the period mentioned above and the factors that may explain why some EU Member States have suffered higher losses than others. In order to achieve the proposed objectives, both qualitative and quantitative analyses were used. Official documents, academic articles and studies conducted by various prestigious think-tanks were analysed. Also, th

Agricultural and Foodstuff Trade between EU28 and Russia: (Non)Uniformity of the Russian Import Ban Impact Distribution

The distribution of the impact of the Russian import ban on the EU28 countries is not uniform. The market shares and clustering of the EU28 countries changed before and after the introduction of the ban. Although the Russian import ban was introduced as a countermeasure to Western sectoral and individual sanctions, the ban’s impact on EU28 economies is not parallel, and the impact is not evenly distributed among EU members. Cluster analysis shows that two groups of countries can be distinguished, with Group 2 having the most severe impact from the ban (on average, a decrease of 48% in the trade balance with Russia). Our results show that Germany, the Netherlands, Latvia, Lithuania, Italy and Poland are the countries which have experienced the largest Russian import ban impact and bear up to 63% of total EU28 losses due to the ban. Some of the countries (Austria, Hungary, Czechia) did not stop expanding trade after the import ban, and they could be the ones to see the first benefits once the ban is lifted.

Environmental impact assessment of China's waste import ban policies: An empirical analysis of waste plastics importation from Japan

In January 2018, the Chinese government implemented a ban on importation of foreign waste, including waste plastics and other miscellaneous waste. Consequently, this ban has changed the global plastic recycling options. The aim of this study is to clarify the environmental impact of the ban between China and Japan, which is the largest exporter of plastic waste. The question of whether these policies are fundamentally helping to reduce the environmental burden has also been discussed from the viewpoints of China and Japan. Plastics have been classified into seven categories. Material flow analysis (MFA) and CO2 emissions derived in the MFA were applied to examine the material flow of waste plastics and compare CO2 emissions of virgin and recycled resins in Japan and China before, and after, the ban. A scope for the MFA including the recycling process of waste plastics, virgin resin production, and shipping between countries was proposed, and the transition of the material flow and CO2 emissions caused by China's waste import ban were evaluated. Material flow relevant to both Japan and China was set as the scope. Material flow crossing the scope, such as import of waste plastic into China from countries other than Japan, and export of waste plastic from Japan to countries other than China before the ban was excluded. The main finding of MFA is that the transition in material flow between 2016 and 2018 in China demonstrated high virgin resin imports and exports in 2016, and 28% of recycled waste plastics in China were derived from imported waste plastic. After the ban, the amount of waste plastic imports decreased by more than 99%, causing domestic virgin resin production to increase. Other findings include that CO2 emissions of the input of virgin materials increased by up to 10%, and the CO2 emissions derived from virgin resin production increased by up to 11% in 2018 compared those reported in 2016. With this transition, the CO2 emissions of 1 kg of raw materials in 2018 increased by 0.24 kg compared with 2016. In contrast, Japan's exports decreased, and domestic recycled plastic input increased. The CO2 emissions of 1 kg of raw materials in 2018 decreased by 0.07 kg compared with 2016.

Impact of China's waste import policy on the scrap copper recovery pattern and environmental benefits.

The international trade weight of scrap copper has exceeded 6 million tons annually over the past two decades. China introduced the "National Sword" policy in 2017, which brought uncertainty to the international recycling of scrap copper. We use the international scrap copper trade figures from 1998 to 2019 in UN Comtrade, and seek to analyze the impact of China's import ban by setting up a difference-in-differences (DID) model based on the gravity model. The results show that 1) The ban has promoted the development of regional trade and improved the quality of scrap copper in international trade. The unit value of imported scrap copper in China has risen by 58%. 2) China's import ban has reduced the import weight of scrap copper by 68.6% and its value by 44.4% without the influence of other socioeconomic factors. 3) China's import of copper scrap is concentrated in coastal provinces. Guangdong Province has been most heavily affected. The imports of low-quality copper scrap in Guangdong have decreased by 94%. 4) The import ban reduced the environmental impact in China by 36.6%, but the global environmental impact has increased because of the gap in recycling technology, especially in developing countries. These discoveries will be beneficial to predict the future of international scrap copper recovery, and help rule makers formulate trade and environmental policies.

Divergent views on trophy hunting in Africa, and what this may mean for research and policy

AbstractOver the past decade, trophy hunting in Africa has seen increased public and scientific interest. Much of that attention has come from outside of Africa, with little emphasis on local views. We circulated an online survey through international networks to explore demographic and regional differences in opinion regards support for African trophy hunting, trophy import bans, and outside funding of conservation estates supported by hunting. We received ∼5700 responses and found that location, demography, and conservation background influenced opinion. African and North American respondents showed (significantly) more support for trophy hunting than respondents from Europe or other areas, as did respondents with conservation backgrounds. Unlike North Americans, Africans supported external subsidies of wildlife areas presently funded by hunting. Many factors affected opinions on African hunting, but respondent location played a major role. Realistic policy on African trophy hunting should thus integrate African perspectives, in particular those of rural communities.

Why Turkey should not import plastic waste pollution from developed countries?

Turkey became a major importer of global plastic waste after China banned plastic imports on January 1, 2018. Turkey imported only 261,864 tonnes of plastic waste annually before the ban, but annual imports increased to 772,831 tonnes by 2020. Turkey recently implemented restrictions on importing plastic waste (quotas, %1 contamination limit, banned mixed plastic waste imports), yet illegal dumping and burning is widely reported. Turkey ranks second in Europe and seventh worldwide for plastics production, yet current domestic waste management and recycling programs cannot handle domestic plastic waste generation. Roughly 90% of municipal solid waste produced in Turkey ends up in landfills. Plastic waste mismanagement results in plastic leakage into the Mediterranean Sea with Turkey contributing the highest share (16.8%) of European marine plastic pollution. With this latest import restriction, Turkey now has an opportunity to strengthen and improve its own domestic waste management infrastructure to reduce indiscriminate plastic marine pollution.

Regulatory Autonomy under the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures: Implications of Korea – Import Bans, and Testing and Certification Requirements for Radionuclides – ERRATUM

Regulatory Autonomy under the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures: Implications of <i>Korea – Import Bans</i>, and Testing and Certification Requirements for Radionuclides – ERRATUM

Decomposing the decoupling of plastics consumption and economic growth in G7 and China: Evidence from 2001 to 2020 based on China's import ban

Plastic recycling is critical for dematerializing of plastics. It has a profound implication on decoupling economic growth from environmental pressure and advancing waste plastic governance domestically and internationally while identifying drivers that might improve decoupling. In this study, plastic consumption and recycling patterns are presented, and the factors influencing the acceleration of dematerialization subsequent to the ban were investigated in the G7 countries and China. The results show that plastic consumption increases from 7.60 million metric tons (mt) to 12.60 mt between 2017 and 2019, and subsequently rapidly decreases to 6.84 mt in 2020. The plastic recycling rate drastically decreased by 21.3% in 2017, and decreased slightly from 2017 to 2020, at an annual rate of 2.9% on average. China's ban shocked the decoupling trends, which showed resilience and motivated the development of robust plastic recycling, and the global recycling transformation pattern accelerated the dematerialization of plastics. Decoupling performances of the G7 and China gradually stabilized in 2019, and all the countries were strongly decoupled in 2020, although decoupling index (DI) fluctuates from 2017 to 2020. Among the recycling-trading drivers, the improvement of waste plastic quality in recycling contributes more to decoupling, the recycling rate shows a more negative decoupling effect on China before the ban, and the population effect is weak relative to other influencing factors. The factors revealed the mechanism of decoupling of plastic consumption in the recycling-trading process, and the recyclability improvement in terms of plastic quality is important for dematerialization.

Emission impacts of China\u2019s solid waste import ban and COVID-19 in the copper supply chain

Climate change will increase the frequency and severity of supply chain disruptions and large-scale economic crises, also prompting environmentally protective local policies. Here we use econometric time series analysis, inventory-driven price formation, dynamic material flow analysis, and life cycle assessment to model each copper supply chain actor’s response to China’s solid waste import ban and the COVID-19 pandemic. We demonstrate that the economic changes associated with China’s solid waste import ban increase primary refining within China, offsetting the environmental benefits of decreased copper scrap refining and generating a cumulative increase in CO2-equivalent emissions of up to 13 Mt by 2040. Increasing China’s refined copper imports reverses this trend, decreasing CO2e emissions in China (up to 180 Mt by 2040) and globally (up to 20 Mt). We test sensitivity to supply chain disruptions using GDP, mining, and refining shocks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, showing the results translate onto disruption effects.

Evaluating waste and scrap trade risks in Belt and Road Initiative countries

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a global development strategy with great potential for multilateral trade cooperation and economic growth in Asia, Europe and Africa. Commodities trade volumes across BRI countries have boomed in the last few years. However, the waste and scrap (WaS) trade, an important aspect of global waste management, has received little attention. In recent years, frequent trade frictions and restrictive import policies due to increasing environmental protection awareness have sent massive shocks through the international WaS trade system. Exploring the impacts of shocks on BRI-WaS trade is an important but unexamined research topic that can help ensure the steady operation of WaS recycling. To address this research gap, this study first provides a panoramic view of the BRI-WaS trade network and analyzes its structural relation to the global WaS trade network. Second, the hidden risks in the BRI-WaS trade are revealed by proposed shock propagation models in three real-life scenarios, namely, a unilateral trade disruption, a bilateral trade crash and an import ban. Third, the global circulations conceptual framework is mathematically examined in the BRI regional context. The findings reveal that BRI countries are increasingly important to global WaS trade and that BRI-WaS trade presents a heterogeneous structure with evenly distributed trade channels. The “most at-risk” sources in the BRI-WaS trade network are uncovered. The BRI circulation system is mathematically feasible but eco-ethically infeasible. Discussions are provided to support authorities in developing effective strategies to manage BRI-WaS trade and responses to future extreme disturbances as well as address the global WaS crisis.