The Economics of the International Trade of Waste

Kellenberg, Derek K.

doi:10.1146/annurev-resource-100913-012639

Cited by 44 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Research has also found that a large portion of the trade in waste is south-south (ref) but that the majority of trade in hazardous waste is north-north [18,22]. The increasing trade in eWaste and the distinction under the Basel Convention between waste and non-waste is currently also a focal point for the Secretariat of the Basel Convention [23].…”

Section: At the International Level The Agreement With The Greatest mentioning

confidence: 99%

Can the Basel and Stockholm Conventions provide a global framework to reduce the impact of marine plastic litter?

Raubenheimer

McIlgorm

2018

Marine Policy

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The issues resulting from plastic waste in the marine environment have highlighted a general failure to control this pollutant on both land and at sea. The international community is now realising that the increasing growth in the amount of plastic pollution in the ocean is reaching a critical point. This has led to a questioning of the current international governance arrangements for marine litter. The environmental and socioeconomic impacts of marine litter are a symptom of policy failures and greater action is required "upstream" by industry on land to reduce these impacts. The Stockholm and Basel Conventions are international binding instruments that offer the best opportunity to reduce the impacts of plastics and plastic waste globally. We examine weaknesses in how hazardous wastes are categorised and the options to close the gaps in the current framework that allow for and keep pace with innovation. Both conventions are found to be inadequate to manage the entire lifecycle of all plastic applications. Options are suggested for strengthening the international legal and policy framework in order to reduce on a global scale 1) the . quantity of plastic waste generated, and 2) the . hazard of plastics throughout their lifecycle. Disciplines Arts and Humanities | Law Can the Basel and Stockholm Conventions provide a global framework to reduce the impact of marine plastic litter? AbstractThe issues resulting from plastic waste in the marine environment have highlighted a general failure to control this pollutant on both land and at sea. The international community is now realising that the increasing growth in the amount of plastic pollution in the ocean is reaching a critical point. This has led to a questioning of the current international governance arrangements for marine litter. The environmental and socio-economic impacts of marine litter are a symptom of policy failures and greater action is required "upstream" by industry on land to reduce these impacts. The Stockholm and Basel Conventions are international binding instruments that offer the best opportunity to reduce the impacts of plastics and plastic waste globally. We examine weaknesses in how hazardous wastes are categorised and the options to close the gaps in the current framework that allow for and keep pace with innovation. Both conventions are found to be inadequate to manage the entire lifecycle of all plastic applications. Options are suggested for strengthening the international legal and policy framework in order to reduce on a global scale 1) the quantity of plastic waste generated, and 2) the hazard of plastics throughout their lifecycle.

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Section: At the International Level The Agreement With The Greatest mentioning

confidence: 99%

Can the Basel and Stockholm Conventions provide a global framework to reduce the impact of marine plastic litter?

Raubenheimer

McIlgorm

2018

Marine Policy

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“…Among researchers and policymakers, expanding global trade and investment has become the fuel that drives concerns of environmental sustainability caused by the flow of production factors across borders. According to Kellenberg [1], wastes trade in 2012 was approximately 500% greater in size compared with two decades earlier and is becoming a crucial component of global factor flows [2]. Dominated by concerns of environmental pollution [3] and illegal dumping [4] through traded wastes, the literature remains concentrated on developed countries such as the United States and those in the European Union, while waste trade in developing countries has received limited attention [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability and Waste Imports in China: Pollution Haven or Resources Hunting

Alleyne

Zhang

et al. 2021

Sustainability

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Motivations behind a country’s importation of waste are categorized into the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) and the resource hunting hypothesis (RHH). The importation of wastes can lead to environmental sustainability concerns, requiring governments to intervene when the market fails to reduce the negative externalities by strengthening and implementing environmental regulations. Motivated by China’s position within a rapidly growing but environmentally damaging sector of trade, this paper has three goals: (1) to classify the primary hypothesis that governs China’s flow of traded wastes; (2) to verify the heterogeneous impact of the pollution paradise motivation and resource demand motivation of waste imports from developed and developing countries, and across industries; (3) to assess the impact of domestic environmental regulations on the motives behind China’s waste imports. Using 28 imported waste-varieties from 20 of China’s major trade partners across 24 years, findings indicate that the flow of Chinese waste imports is relatively unresponsive under the pollution haven effect. However, the resource hunting effect from developing countries is significantly greater than what originates from developed countries, despite the laws of 2011 and 2017 established to restrict resource hunting activities. These results have important implications for improving the efficiency of China’s waste sorting and recycling systems.

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“…The global trade of waste and scrap is becoming increasingly a flow of waste from developed to developing countries, growing 500% over the two decades since 1992 (Kellenberg, 2015). Proponents of the waste trade maintain that importers can benefit by gaining access to cheap, recycled input materials.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To the best of our knowledge, this is the first econometric analysis of the impact of OGF on the international waste trade. More generally, there are few studies that examine the international waste trade specifically; Kellenberg (2015) reviews the literature. Kellenberg and Levinson (2014) study the impact on countries ratifying a multilateral agreement seeking to regulate the international waste trade, ‘The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Waste and their Disposal’.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fending off waste from the west: The impact of China's Operation Green Fence on the international waste trade

2020

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China, environmental policy, international waste trade, recycling 1 | INTRODUCTION The global trade of waste and scrap is becoming increasingly a flow of waste from developed to developing countries, growing 500% over the two decades since 1992 (Kellenberg, 2015). Proponents of the waste trade maintain that importers can benefit by gaining access to cheap, recycled input materials. Opponents claim that waste importers lack the capacity to effectively manage waste imports. By exporting to these countries, the costs of proper disposal are avoided resulting in "waste havens", which are a special case of the pollution haven. China is by far the world's largest importer of non-hazardous waste, accounting for 22% of the global waste imports in 2014 (UN Comtrade, 2016). This type of waste import is slated for recycling and/or recovery and thereby serves as an input to production. Hence, this type of trade should be in principle no different from trade in intermediate inputs. However, poor quality (e.g., contaminated) waste shipments and waste smuggling were a problem. A concern was the cost of sorting imposed on domestic manufacturing, and the associated environmental impact of the unwanted wastes (Flower, 2016). In response to the problem of poor quality wastes and smuggling, China adopted policies that target the flow of unwanted, poor quality wastes that are costly to recover or dispose. As part of the response, China launched Operation Green Fence (OGF) from 1 February to 31 November 2013. The main objective of the 10-month-long policy intervention was to enforce waste trade policies already adopted by China and thereby restrict illegal hazardous waste imports. In practice, this entailed a marked increase in inspection efforts and policing activity at the border. This paper assesses the impact of OGF on the global, non-hazardous waste trade. 1 We study the non-hazardous waste trade because China has a ban on all hazardous waste imports. We focus on two 1 The international trade of hazardous waste is of course also an important and related issue; see Baggs (2009) and Kellenberg (2015) for a description of this type of waste trade.

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The Economics of the International Trade of Waste

Cited by 44 publications

References 41 publications

Can the Basel and Stockholm Conventions provide a global framework to reduce the impact of marine plastic litter?

Can the Basel and Stockholm Conventions provide a global framework to reduce the impact of marine plastic litter?

Sustainability and Waste Imports in China: Pollution Haven or Resources Hunting

Fending off waste from the west: The impact of China's Operation Green Fence on the international waste trade

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