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Issues in production, recycling and international trade: analysing the Chinese plastic sector using an optimal life cycle (OLC) model

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2002

Anantha Kumar Duraiappah
Affiliation:
International Institute for Sustainable Development and the Amsterdam Institute for International Development, 161, Portage Avenue East, 6th Floor, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3B 0Y4. Tel: 1 (204) 958-7720. Fax: 1 (204) 958-7710. E-Mail: akduraiappah@iisd.ca
Zhou Xin
Affiliation:
Policy Research Centre for Environmental and Economy, State Environmental Protection Agency, No.1 Yuhui Nanlu, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100029, P.R. of China. Tel: 0086-10-64962793. Email: ii@prcee-nepa.ac.cn
Pieter J.H. Van Beukering
Affiliation:
Institute for Environmental Studies/Free University, De Boelelaan 1115, 1081 HV Amsterdam. Tel: 31 20 4449564. E-Mail: beukering@ivm.vu.nl

Abstract

There have been increasing pressures by governments and NGOs to restrict international trade in secondary material waste in the conviction that imports of these goods are in reality a disguise for waste dumping by the exporting country. Moreover, cheap imports of secondary material waste tend to crowd out the local recovery system leading to a domestic waste disposal problem. Alternatively, proponents of trade argue that a ban on secondary material waste leads to an inefficient use of resources resulting inevitably in higher economic and environmental costs, both in developed and developing countries. In this paper we set out to investigate if free trade in secondary material waste can support economic development and simultaneously reduce environmental degradation in a developing country and the conditions necessary for the trade to be permitted. In this study we focus on the trade in waste plastics in China. A life cycle model is formulated within an optimization framework and solved by non-linear programming methods. Preliminary results suggest that trade in waste plastics is both economically and environmentally advantageous but under a number of stringent conditions.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

We would like to thank the two anonymous referees and the managing editor for their comments and recommendations on earlier drafts. The usual disclaimer applies. This study was supported by the CREED (Collabortive Research in the Economics of Environment and Development) program. Anantha Kumar Duraiappah is responsible for the formulation of both the mathematical and GAMS models. Zhou Xin provided the bulk of the production and recycling data while Pieter Beukering supplied the environmental emission and profile data.