Waste Trade Research Articles

The Toxic Ship: The Voyage of the Khian Sea and the Global Waste Trade by Simone M. Müller (review)

The Toxic Ship: The Voyage of the Khian Sea and the Global Waste Trade by Simone M. Müller (review)

CURRENT TRENDS AND COUNTERMEASURES OF INTERNATIONAL WASTE TRADE BETWEEN CHINA AND UKRAINE

It has been proved in the article that with the development of the global economy and the advancement of the industrialization process, the amount of waste has been increasing, and the international trade of waste is becoming increasingly active. As an important trading partner, exchanges and cooperation between Ukraine and China in the field of waste are of great significance. However, the study of the current situation and problems of the two countries in this respect has shown that waste trade had also brought a series of problems and challenges, which need to be further studied and discussed. It has been appeared to become significance to further promote economic cooperation and environmental protection between the two sides. The authors believe that international waste trade carries significant environmental risks because improper management of imported waste can lead to soil, water and air pollution, which negatively affects the health of the population and the ecosystem. The article examines current trends and measures to counter the international waste trade between China and Ukraine. It has been emphasized that waste trade has a significant economic impact hence it is important to understand how these processes affect the country's economy, in particular, the development of the industry of waste processing and innovative technologies. This study contributes to the strengthening of international cooperation in the field of environmental protection and helps to establish effective mechanisms for joint solutions to problems related to waste trade. China's refusal to import certain types of waste significantly has changed the global market and affected many countries, including Ukraine. Further analysis of these changes will help to understand their consequences and find optimal solutions for adaptation to new conditions. Given the growing international movement of waste, it is important to analyse and improve legal and regulatory mechanisms that ensure control and prevent illegal trade, which can lead to environmental and economic problems. The main aspects of this trade have been analysed, including its scale, the types of waste exported and imported, as well as the legislative and regulatory mechanisms of both countries. Particular attention has been paid to the latest international and national initiatives aimed at reducing environmental risks associated with transboundary movement of waste.

Economic viability requires higher recycling rates for imported plastic waste than expected

The environmental impact of traded plastic waste hinges on how it is treated. Existing studies often use domestic or scenario-based recycling rates for imported plastic waste, which is problematic due to differences in recyclability and the fact that importers pay for it. We estimate the minimum required recycling rate (RRR) needed to break even financially by analysing import prices, recycling costs, and the value of recycled plastics across 22 leading importing countries and four plastic waste types during 2013–2022. Here we show that at least 63% of imported plastic waste must be recycled, surpassing the average domestic recycling rate of 23% by 40 percentage points. This discrepancy suggests that recycled plastics volumes from the global North-to-South trade may be underestimated. The country-specific RRR provided could enhance research and policy efforts to better quantify and mitigate the environmental impact of plastic waste trade.

Extended Producer Responsibility and Trade Flows in Waste: The Case of Batteries

AbstractIn the debate on international waste trade, the focus on resource efficiency and recycling has gradually begun to accompany the focus on negative environmental externalities. In this context, we examine the impact of extended producer responsibility (EPR) on the export of waste batteries (WB). EPR is considered as a key policy for the “marketization of waste”. WB are a hazardous waste that also contain a high concentration of critical raw materials. As such, they are of strategic importance for the recovery of critical resources, while at the same time requiring proper environmental management. Therefore, it is crucial to understand where WB are treated and how this is affected by related policies. Our results, based on difference-in-difference models in a gravity framework, show a consistent increase in WB exports after EPR implementation compared to the trend for other wastes. This result is likely to be an indirect consequence of the ability of EPR to support growth in waste collection rates, more accurate tracking of transboundary waste flows, and specialization of national waste management systems. In particular, WB exports appear to be directed to countries with more advanced waste management systems, more stringent environmental regulations, and limited endowments of the mineral resources typically contained in batteries.

“E-waste” Colonialism: Mechanism of Late Modernity in Chen Qiufan’s Waste Tide

Abstract Among numerous literary works on international waste trade, by way of which the toxic waste has been exported basically from developed countries to underdeveloped areas, the Chinese writer Chen Qiufan’s Waste Tide is the only one that examines one of the most toxic waste streams, namely, the electronic waste, or the e-waste. However, this particular novel has not received much critical attention in the anglophone world. The few studies on this science fiction tend to focus on the capital market, the conflict between global and local, or the alienation of human and nature, neglecting its significant thematic concern on the e-waste. In this context, this study seeks to address this gap by analyzing the author’s focus on the neglected issue of e-waste in the system of waste colonialism. By exploring this work from the perspective of waste colonialism, this study attempts to disclose how the e-waste functions as a special symbol of late modernity and in what mechanism late modernity works to exert its effect respectively on economic-political institutions, knowledge system, and human cognition of their own subjectivity. Significantly, this study will argue that, in late modernity, the system of waste colonialism has developed into what this study terms “e-waste” colonialism, promoting the reconsolidation of power structure, the intensification of expert knowledge, and the deconstruction of human subjectivity.

Spatial and component structure analysis of the inclusive circular economy: SGICE

Modern statistics and scientific research consider the circular economy rather one-sidedly, essentially as recycling and reuse of resources. The article proposes methodology (concept) of the global inclusive circular economy, which can be considered as a complex multidimensional system, the main components of which are the economic, sociological, ecological and circular aspects of the country's life. To achieve this goal, the GNU regression, econometrics and time-series library was used – an applied software package for econometric modeling, a part of the GNU project. Accordingly, we will define the global inclusive circular economy as the SGICE (Global Inclusive Circular Economy) system, characterized by the vector of functions. For the most exhaustive consideration of the entire range of opportunities of the global inclusive circular economy, the study developed and accordingly analyzed the integrated index of the development of the global inclusive circular economy (IGICE) by ecological, economic, social and circular components with isolated weakly correlated indicators. The ranking of countries was carried out separately by the components of the index, on the basis of which circular cores were distinguished: the social component (Belgium, the Czech Republic, USA, China, France, Greece, Austria, Australia), the ecological component (Japan, Denmark), the economic component (Germany, China), which became the basis for the model of formation of global inclusive circular chains. The conducted cluster analysis based on the component indicators of the index of the global inclusive circular economy confirmed the formation of a large circular gap (gap) in the ecological and circular components. This indicator is introduced for the first time and makes it possible to comprehensively analyze the country and highlight additional effects that arise from the moment of implementation of circular business projects and the inclusion of the country (on the basis of firms, corporations) in global circular chains of added value. After all, the main problematic aspects are the illegal trade in waste and growing smuggling, which cause serious negative social consequences and actualize the inclusive component in the justification of the global inclusive circular economy paradigm. Waste reduction combined with wise use of resources has the potential to address the gap resulting from the scarcity of natural resources and a growing global population or consumption. The formation of circular trade will contribute to: the determination of priority materials for trade and the required level of processing capacity, coordination of material quality standards, promoting demand for used goods and secondary raw materials, removing unnecessary regulatory barriers and avoiding environmentally harmful activities such as non-compliance, poor regulation and informal recovery.

Will you take my (s)crap? Waste havens in the global plastic waste trade

Will you take my (s)crap? Waste havens in the global plastic waste trade

Traded Plastic, Traded Impacts? Designing Counterfactual Scenarios to Assess Environmental Impacts of Global Plastic Waste Trade.

The global trade of plastic waste has raised environmental concerns, especially regarding pollution in waste-importing countries. However, the overall environmental contribution remains unclear due to uncertain treatment shares between handling plastic waste abroad and domestically. Here, we conduct a life cycle assessment of global plastic waste trade in 2022 across 18 countries and six plastic waste types, alongside three "nontrade" counterfactual scenarios. By considering the required cycling rate, which balances importers' costs and recycling revenues, we find that the trade resulted in lower environmental impacts than treating domestically with the average treatment mix. The trade scenario alone reduced climate change impact by 2.85 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent and mitigated damages to ecosystem quality, human health, and resource availability by 12 species-years, 6200 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), and 1.4 billion United States dollars (USD in 2013), respectively. These results underscore the significance of recognizing plastic waste trade as a pivotal factor in regulating global secondary plastic production when formulating a global plastics treaty.

Importing air pollution? Evidence from China’s plastic waste imports

Plastic waste trade has grown considerably in the last decades and has led to severe environmental problems in recipient countries. Being the largest recipient, China has permanently banned the imports of plastic waste since 2018. This paper examines the causal effect of plastic waste imports on air pollution by exploiting China’s experience of importing plastic waste and the recent import ban. By combining data on plastic waste imports with PM2.5 data at the city level for the years 2000–2011, we find that plastic waste imports increased PM2.5 density significantly in recipient cities. To evaluate the impact of the import ban on air quality, we employ daily data on air pollution between 2015 and 2020. Our difference-in-differences results show that affected cities, relative to other cities, experienced considerable improvement in air quality following the ban. Further analysis reveals that increased incineration of non-recycled waste is the main channel. These findings provide insights into the costs of importing plastic waste and the potential environmental gains from banning such imports in other countries.

Towards a Non-Use Regime on Solar Geoengineering: Lessons from International Law and Governance

AbstractIn recent years, some scientists have called for research into and potential development of ‘solar geoengineering’ technologies as an option to counter global warming. Solar geoengineering refers to a set of speculative techniques to reflect some incoming sunlight back into space, for example, by continuously spraying reflective sulphur aerosols into the stratosphere over several generations. Because of the significant ecological, social, and political risks posed by such technologies, many scholars and civil society organizations have urged governments to take action to prohibit the development and deployment of solar geoengineering techniques. In this article we take such calls for a prohibitory or a non-use regime on solar geoengineering as a starting point to examine existing international law and governance precedents that could guide the development of such a regime. The precedents we examine include international prohibitory and restrictive regimes that impose bans or restrictions on chemical weapons, biological weapons, weather modification technologies, anti-personnel landmines, substances that deplete the ozone layer, trade in hazardous wastes, deep seabed mining, and mining in Antarctica. We also assess emerging norms and soft law in anticipatory governance of novel technologies, such as human cloning and gene editing. While there is no blueprint for a solar geoengineering non-use regime in international law, our analysis points to numerous specific elements on which governments could draw to constrain or impose an outright prohibition on the development of technologies for solar geoengineering, should they opt to do so.

Complex waste management in Myanmar: role of the actors, relationships, and social capital

AbstractAdequate waste management is a pressing global problem that undermines sustainability efforts in many countries. Controlling solid waste, recycling, and reducing waste including plastics, are essential policy objectives. This is especially relevant in countries like Myanmar, scoring poorly on waste-related indicators. This paper adopts a holistic system perspective, looking at the formal and the informal sectors’ contribution to waste collection and recycling efforts. By studying waste management in the Bago Township, we investigate the actors’ relationships by identifying bonding mechanisms between the actors. Central in the informal system are medium and larger scrap dealers that not only serve as waste trade intermediaries, but function as banks, social security agents, and fora for information exchange. The study shows that relationships between scrap dealers and waste pickers are regulated by different types of bonding mechanisms contributing to the social capital variables, trust, predictability, transparency and openness. In contrast, a few bonding mechanisms were established by the formal sector actors. It is the formal system that has the mandate to assure waste collection and that the waste is treated appropriately without posing any environmental and health risks. The informal system contributes to impressive levels of circularity, while also supporting livelihoods. Strengths and responsibilities should be adequately recognized and included in the governance arrangements. Identification of a governance system that addresses both formal and the informal sector needs to consider the local context by involving local stakeholders and build on the existing networks, knowledge, and skills.

Industrial and textile waste trade: Multilayer network and environmental policy effects

Waste management is an international enterprise, and it is important to understand global flows of recyclable materials. The Pollution Haven Hypothesis (PHH) suggests that waste moves from high income nations with stringent environmental policy to low income nations with less environmentally stringent policy, by exploiting low labor and regulatory costs. This paper assesses the PHH thesis for slag/dross and textiles (SDT) wastes in PHH through novel integration of the multilayer network and gravity models. The multilayer network model generates network effect that quantifies interlayer connections of multiple waste trade networks. Instead of North-South movement of waste, North-North, South-South, and even South-North are shown. Results from the gravity model indicate that stringent waste management policies reduce both waste exports and imports. PHH is not found for slags/dross where high income countries are importing the waste, contradicting PHH. On the other hand, PHH is more evident between highly connected hubs and havens in SDT waste trade networks.

Towards a Just Circular Economy Transition: the Case of European Plastic Waste Trade to Vietnam for Recycling

Exporting waste for recycling to destinations without sound recycling capacity raises questions of fairness and sustainability. Due to insufficient recycling infrastructure in Europe to manage the growing generation of plastic waste, there has been an increase in waste trade for recycling in a complex global value chain, with the stated goal of achieving sound resource recovery. However, such trade poses increasing governance and sustainability challenges. The EU has implemented policies and systems for plastic waste management, including separate collection to prevent potential harm and promote resource reuse. Nevertheless, waste handling is often outsourced without transparency to countries with cheaper operating and labour costs, which can cause harm to individuals, societies, and the environment. Fifty per cent of the collected European plastic waste for recycling is shipped for recycling outside the EU without accountability. This Vietnamese case study of the EU plastic waste exports for recycling aims to increase our understanding of waste governance and its circularity, sustainability and justice implications. We adopt a multidisciplinary perspective to understand the challenges of the EU’s plastic waste export practices for the broader socio-ecological system. We propose a multidisciplinary framework as an ecocentric ethical guide for just and circular future waste shipment practices with strong consideration for the social and ecological dimensions. We hope that this research and its outcomes can provide insights for forthcoming policies, such as the United Nations treaty on plastic waste pollution.

A mathematical programming based decision support system for waste to resource market trading

In a linear economy, consumers typically dispose end-of-life products which are eventually incinerated or landfilled. Digital platforms could unlock rich waste reutilization opportunities and economic benefits by connecting the waste producers with potential waste buyers in online marketplaces. While previous studies mostly focus on input-output matching, this study proposes a decision support system that can be incorporated to an online marketplace to optimize the waste trading based on economic considerations. Moreover, the decision support system could facilitate higher level decisions such as capacity planning and incentive design. Based on a case study on Singapore’s organic waste streams, the waste trading platform presents economic benefits for agents that sell their waste. Additionally, enforcing waste reutilization targets would require relevant policy support in terms of incentives or levies, where the levies can be implemented as co-payment rate for the agents. For instance, results showed that when the food waste reutilization target is set as 6 t/d, increasing the co-payment rate from 0 to 20% allows the waste trading network to be self-sustaining without external funding. Finally, sensitivity analyses show that collecting more waste records in the database helps in optimizing the investment decisions, preferably when the number of records exceeds 64.

Plastic waste trade and international agreements

Plastic waste trade and international agreements

The Trend of Plastic Recycling Policies in Japan on the Current Legal Regulation of Transboundary Movements of Plastic Waste

Since China’s import ban on solid waste in 2017 and the entry into force of “Plastic Amendment” to the Basel Convention, global plastic waste trading has entered a new historical stage that transboundary movements of plastic waste is no longer regarded as a wise approach for many developed countries. Due to the fact that China, a traditional plastic-importing country, no longer accepts plastic waste after 2021, and the strict regulations on cross-border plastic transactions under the amendment to the Basel Convention, the circulation of plastic waste is increasingly restricted, making it imperative for the world to build a new plastic disposal system to deal with the immediate crisis. As a traditional plastic-export country in Asia, Japan faces domestic plastic overstocking crisis as well. However, as a well-known environmentally-friendly country, Japan’s new policies and legal perfection implemented thereafter have triggered concerns. Regulations through the whole process including production, use, recycling of plastic have clearly specified the responsibilities of main bodies, and the macro control of product production standards sets a unified supervision system at the national level. The valuable experience of this “Japanese Model” can provide some references for China’s future improvements of domestic plastic waste management.

Finding equitable solutions to the land-based sources of marine plastic pollution: Sovereignty as a double-edged sword

Marine litter is a global and transboundary pollution problem. Recent attention has focused on the impact of this issue on areas beyond national jurisdiction. In many cases, marine litter is traced to a coastal State where debris have been released into the sea. Effective and legally-binding commitments at the global level to tackle land-based sources of marine pollution are rare, in large part because of the sensitive nature of territorial sovereignty. When it comes to addressing the marine plastics crisis, sovereignty is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the international legal regime traditionally addressing marine litter, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, does not specifically respond to, and is not able to adequately address, the issue of plastics as a land-based source of marine pollution. While it contributes to social equity by recognizing the special position of developing States in terms of capacity and need for economic development, this deference to domestic decisions is not conducive to the adoption of binding and global standards. Since a large majority of plastics in the oceans originate from land, this weakness is a major concern. On the other hand, sovereignty might contribute to a solution within the regime regulating trade in waste products: unilateral actions taken in application of sovereign powers and aimed at reducing trade in plastic waste led to major multilateral actions with the potential to reduce the issue of marine plastic pollution. In recent times, the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Waste and their Disposal has indeed become an important forum to respond to the plastic waste issue, with the potential to contribute to a solution to the marine dimension of this crisis. This regime is not perfect, especially in that its complexity and reliance on enforcement at the customs level leave ample opportunities for criminal activities to flourish. Areas for improvement include addressing the legal uncertainty regarding bilateral, regional, and multilateral agreements as well as certain key definitions; strengthening the prior informed consent procedure and the Mechanism for Promoting Implementation and Compliance; and heavily investing in capacity building and technology transfer. Nonetheless, this regime provides a widely-ratified framework to decrease trade in plastic waste considered hazardous or requiring special consideration – these two categories cover most hard-to-recycle plastics. In that sense, the Basel Convention regime has the potential to reduce mismanaged plastic waste leaking into the oceans and to contribute to social equity between States–if not domestically–by reducing the practice of wealthy countries using developing States as dumping grounds under the pretense of mutually beneficial trade in waste products.

Evolution of structural characteristics and its determinants of global human hair waste trade network based on temporal exponential random graph model

Human hair waste (HHW), used primarily for wigs, saw its global trade value rise from $6.36 million in 1991 to $149.4 million in 2020. This study maps the global HHW trade network from 1991 to 2020, analyzing its structural evolution using the temporal exponential random graph model (TERGM). The network reveals hub nodes acting as bridges, with Southeast Asia, particularly India and China, as key players in exports and imports respectively. Factors like fashion trends, religious culture, and linguistic and geographic elements influence trade network formation. Countries with pronounced fashion inclinations and religious disparities exhibit stronger trade cooperation. This study offers insights for businesses to navigate HHW markets and emphasizes the importance of this resource for a stable global supply chain, promoting a shift towards a circular development model.

Redistribute Toxicity

Redistribute Toxicity was a commissioned art piece created by visual artist Jonas Staal in close collaboration with environmental historian Jonas Stuck and curator and researcher Caroline Ektander, and later enriched by the knowledge and practices of seed librarian, artist, and activist Zayaan Khan for the exhibition The Long Term You Cannot Afford: On the Distribution of the Toxic at SAVVY Contemporary in Berlin in 2019. Informed by historical research on the trade of hazardous waste between the two Germanys during the Cold War—with a particular focus on the landfill Vorketzin, which served as West Berlin’s primary hazardous waste disposal site during the division—the art commission asked us to consider what an act of redistribution of a toxic past could look like. Similar to other waste practices premised on systems of externalization, the one that transpired between a divided Germany resulted in an asymmetrical impact on human, animal, and plant lives populating the former East—effects that are till this day hard to account for. The research process generated a series of designs that exposed the various practical and ethical issues entangled with acts of retribution and helped shape a project that became less concerned with correcting the past and more committed to reconfiguring toxic relations in the present. The final installation design propagated seeds from the wetland vegetation surrounding the landfill. This wild vegetation had not only become implicated in Germany’s toxic history as silent witnesses but had also helped remediate the soils over time.

Unraveling the driving factors of the plastic waste trade network formation and dynamics

International trade of plastic waste promotes the global plastic circular economy and improves resource efficiency, but exacerbates the ubiquitous plastic pollution. Understanding the drivers behind the evolution of the global plastic waste trade network (GPWTN) is pivotal for developing new international instruments to end plastic pollution and fostering clean solid-waste trade. Employing social network analysis (SNA) and quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) model, this study structures the GPWTN using bilateral trade data, revealing shifts from highly centralized to cross-layered networks and relevant drivers. It is suggested that Malaysia and Turkey has become the new key recipients of the GPWTN, replacing China, accompanied by the launch of new environmental regulations in some countries. Transportation cost is the most critical factor for the formation of the GPWTN, followed by gaps in resource demand, bio-based resource availability, and transportation accessibility. Trading partners in closer proximity, especially those with contiguous borders, are more likely to trade in waste plastics, while coastal countries play an important role in these partnerships. Economies with more abundant biomaterials, higher incomes, and greater environmental burdens are more likely to be exporters, while economies with scarcer resources and more compelling demands are more likely to import plastic waste. Countries involved in the trade in plastic waste, as either importers or exporters, receive varying degrees of economic benefits but bear potential environmental impacts. Therefore, global plastic pollution control and trade prosperity necessitates necessitate coordinated endeavors from nations and intergovernmental bodies for a mutually advantageous denouement.