Project/Area Number |
16252001
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Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
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Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
Section | 海外学術 |
Research Field |
Environmental impact assessment/Environmental policy
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Research Institution | Hokkaido University |
Principal Investigator |
YOSHIDA Fumikazu Hokkaido University, Faculty of Public Policy, Professor, 大学院公共政策学連携研究部, 教授 (70113644)
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Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
TERANISHI Shunnichi Hitotsubashi University, Economics, Professor, 大学院経済学研究科, 教授 (30134878)
HATA Akio Osaka City University, Management, Professor, 大学院経営学研究科, 教授 (20275233)
TOGAWA Kennichi Kumamoto University, Law, Professor, 法学部, 教授 (90264118)
YOKEMOTO Satoshi Tokyo Keizai University, Economics, Associate Professor, 経済学部, 助教授 (60317906)
OSHIMA Kennichi Ritsumaikan University, International, Associate Profes., 国際関係学部, 助教授 (00295437)
小島 道一 日本貿易振興機構, アジア経済研究所, 研究員
|
Project Period (FY) |
2004 – 2006
|
Project Status |
Completed (Fiscal Year 2006)
|
Budget Amount *help |
¥21,840,000 (Direct Cost: ¥16,800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥5,040,000)
Fiscal Year 2006: ¥7,280,000 (Direct Cost: ¥5,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,680,000)
Fiscal Year 2005: ¥6,890,000 (Direct Cost: ¥5,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,590,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥7,670,000 (Direct Cost: ¥5,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,770,000)
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Keywords | cyclical society / Asia / Recycle / Trans-boundary movement / Basel convention / 循環型社会 / アジア経済 / 廃家電 / e-waste |
Research Abstract |
In 2000, Japan promulgated the Basic Law for Establishing a Recycling-based Society and introduced a number of subsidiary laws related to it, thereby launching a series of initiatives to hold down the consumption of natural resources and reduce environmental burdens; but a serious problem here is that China's economic growth has induced a high demand for materials like ferrous scrap, waste paper, and waste plastic, whose prices therefore tend to rise. China is a "magnet" that attracts recyclable resources from Japan and greatly affects Japan's recycling systems. There are three problems. In the first place, China is short on resources yet has a plentiful supply of cheap labor, while Japan has relatively high labor costs and higher recycling costs. Continued economic growth in China will therefore continue to induce the outflow of recyclable resources from Japan. The second problem has to do with Japan's own domestic recycling systems. At least 90% of television sets and other consumer el
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ectronics are made in China and Southeast Asian countries, so even if CRTs were to be recovered and separated, the absence of CRT manufacturing plants in Japan means that the country lacks the very basis for domestic resource cycling operations. Thirdly, Japan's recycling systems are irrational in economic terms. For example, under the container and packaging waste recycling system, municipalities use taxes to collect, transport, and separate glass bottles, cans, PET bottles, and plastic containers, while contractors bear the costs for recycling; but at current prices PET bottles are collected as unmarketable wastes even though they are marketable, and taken to designated recycling centers. It is economically advantageous if glass bottles, cans, PET bottles, and plastic containers can be separated and recovered, but many municipalities collect them without separating them. A new approach must be considered, one which would involve collecting marketable wastes as such through group resource recovery and other means and by gradually reducing the collection of containers and packaging by municipalities, as this would lessen the percentage of waste management achieved through taxes. Less
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