This paper analyzes the impacts of China’s Green Fence and National Sword Programs, under which strict contamination limits were imposed on recyclable materials, besides prohibiting imports of low quality recyclables. Specifically, this study investigates the impacts of this policy on landfills, and the risks to the U.S. plastics secondary materials market and material recovery facilities (MRFs). A hierarchical regression analysis reveals the significant impacts of China’s Green Fence and National Sword polices on the amount landfilled plastic. Controlling for oil prices, producer price index (PPI), and amount of plastic scrap exported, our findings show that the Green Fence had no statistically significant impact on the amount of plastic landfilled in the U.S. However, the quantity of plastic landfilled in the U.S. increased by 23.2% following the implementation of National Sword. Furthermore, analysis of the annual reports submitted by registered MRFs in New York (NY) state reveals that the total amount of plastic recovered by them has decreased. We suggest that demand creation and investments that improve the quality of bales are needed to help solve this economic dilemma.
This study examines the relationship between disruptive technologies and their potential impacts on sustainable supply chain management (SSCM), with a focus on the following technologies: Big Data Analytics / Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning, Blockchain, Industry 4.0 / Internet of Things (IoT), 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing, and P2P / Sharing Economy. Based on a comprehensive literature review on both theoretical and practical roles of these disruptive technologies in SSCM, we conduct a cross-case study to analyze the impacts of disruptive technologies on sustainability performance. From 100 application cases of 41 companies in key supply chain management and sustainability journals, we develop a classification scheme based on implementation complexity and sustainability performance of disruptive technologies. The implementation complexity and sustainability performance matrix show that all the cases examined have a positive overall sustainability performance score which indicates that investment in disruptive technologies improves the sustainability performance of firms. However, the impact of each disruptive technology on sustainability performance varies with the types of technology and sustainability dimensions. We also utilize the cases to illustrate how disruptive technologies are applied to key areas of SSCM and identify opportunities for future research.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.