Study of comprehensive management of waste and resource toward circular economy

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K00678
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Environmental policy and social systems
• Research Institution: Iwate University
• Principal Investigator: Sasao Toshiaki 岩手大学, 人文社会科学部, 教授 (90322958)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 循環経済 / 廃棄物処理 / 資源循環 / 計量経済分析

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The study examined comprehensive management of waste and resource toward circular economy, referring to advanced cases in the EU, particularly Belgium, and Japan. It showed that appropriate selection of sorted waste and collaboration between municipalities and private companies were necessary for efficient use of resource and energy produced from waste. It also clarified the determinants of prices, consumption and export of wastepaper by a time-series analysis of wastepaper markets. In addition, the study indicated that comprehensive treatment of a variety of recyclables could absorb possible fluctuation of resource revenue. On the other hand, the study also showed that introduction of weight-based pricing decreased the amount of residual waste significantly, compared with volume-based pricing, however, the remarkable decrease was observed only in the first year after the introduction.

Free Research Field

環境経済学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

廃棄物処理と資源管理の政策統合を進める上で、世界最高水準のリサイクル率を低コストで実現しながら、国内ではあまり紹介されることのないベルギーの事例に注目して、調査・分析を行った点は学術的・社会的意義が大きい。また動学的な分析により、従来手法がごみ処理有料化の効果を過大評価していた可能性を示したことは学術的に意義がある。リサイクルや熱回収を見据えた分別収集品目の選択や自治体と業者間の連携の必要性や、時系列分析により古紙の資源取引量や価格の決定要因を明らかにした点は、持続可能な廃棄物資源管理を進める上で社会的意義が大きい。