“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
1. Present circumstances of waste disposal and recycling in Japan
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Material flow in Japan
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Trend of discharge of MSW
Landfill of municipal solid waste
Capacity of landfill for municipal solid waste
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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MSW 産業廃棄物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
Concerning Law 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
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Containers and Packaging Recycling Act
PRO
Money flow Containers and packages
flow
Home Appliance Recycling Act
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Automobile Recycling
Act
Small Home Appliance Recycling Act
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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.
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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
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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
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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）
中華人民共和国
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）
中華人民共和国
香港
韓国
その他
発生量に対する輸出 量の割合
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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）
中華人民共和国
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 capita amount of waste generation
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
There is room for further efforts on industrial sides to reduce waste.
Input of natural resources in Japan
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Source: Annual Report on the Environment, the Sound Material-Cycle Society and the Biodiversity in Japan (2012)
International comparison of resource productivity
Source: Annual Report on the Environment, the Sound Material-Cycle Society and the Biodiversity in Japan (2012)
4. Concluding remarks
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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.
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