Part of Weatherhead Scholars Seminar, February 5th 2020

Speakers: Henrique Pacini and Kuniaki Iwatani (US-Japan Programme)

Lunch available at 11:45

Time: 12:00 – 13:15 Room: K262, CGIS Knafel Building

Much buzz has been created around the reduce-reuse-recycle motto. At the same time,
growing incomes across the world have fed a nearly continuous expansion of material consumption across all countries. This has led to pressures in waste management and environmental stewardship, with negative spillovers to biodiversity, economies and society.  Many countries now face the simultaneous questions of how to reduce waste streams and how to recover the value of what is currently being discarded. In this process, countries need to find a balance between domestic action and international trade in recyclable materials. As the 2017 China-ban on scrap material exemplified, political demands have risen against such flows, in contrast with the growing global interest in expanding circular economy across borders.

This presentation will show some insights of research work being undertaken by Henrique Pacini on patterns of recyclables trade from selected materials (plastics, textiles, paper and metals) using UN COMTRADE data, in an attempt to identify areas for action to promote a better global circular economy.  The presentation will be complemented with a country case of Japan by Mr. Kuniaki Iwatani (US-Japan Programme) focused on the problems and dillemas of plastics recycling & exports.