Abstract
Rapid economic growth in Asia and the increasing transboundary movement of secondary resources will increasingly require both 3R endeavors (reduce, reuse, recycle) in each country and appropriate control of international material cycles. Recently, managing electrical and electronic waste (E-waste) has become an important target for domestic and international material cycles from the viewpoints of environmental preservation and resource utilization efficiency. To understand the current status of E-waste issues in the context of international material cycles and to discuss the future tasks related to achieving 3R in the region, we organized the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) E-waste Workshop in December 2004. This article reviews past studies on E-waste and briefly describes the topics presented and discussions held at the workshop. The topics at the workshop included E-waste generation, recycling systems, international trade, and environmental impacts. In addition, we discussed various issues such as terminology, current environmental concerns, and possible solutions. Transboundary shipments of E-waste should be conducted taking into consideration the concept of sustainable development. The direction of future research and possible collaborations are also discussed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-12 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Mar 2006 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
In this context, Japan’s National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) launched a research project (Structural Analysis of Material Cycles and Waste Management in Asia) in cooperation with the United Nations University/Institute for Advanced Studies (UNU/IAS, FY2002 to FY2003), the University of Tokyo (FY2003 to FY2004), and the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE/JETRO, FY2004), with funding by the Ministry of the Environment of Japan from FY2002 to FY2004. The objectives were to identify the structure of material cycles in Asia, focusing mainly on material exported from Japan, to understand the current waste management situation in Asia and to identify the tasks needed to improve the situation.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| IDE | |
| Institute of Developing Economies | |
| JETRO | FY2004 |
| United Nations University/Institute for Advanced Studies | |
| United Nations University | |
| University of Tokyo | FY2003 |
| National Institute for Environmental Studies | |
| Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan | |
| International AIDS Society | FY2002 |
Keywords
- Asia
- E-waste
- Environmental preservation
- Material cycles
- Recycling systems