The Circular Economy of China: Focusing on Metal Recycling and WEEE Recycling

Abstract

The recycling system used in China, which is said to have a big environmental burden, has a substantial impact on Japanese recycling systems. China has proposed the idea of the Circular Economy to develop a sustainable economy, for which resource & energy saving and environmental protection are indispensable conditions. Recycling is an important instrument for the Circular Economy. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the status quo of recycling, and the direction as well as the challenges of Circular Economy from the perspectives of policy instruments and environmental governance. To achieve the Circular Economy targets, proposed reforms of the socio-economic system include direct regulation such as industrial structure policy and strict environmental regulation, and also indirect policy such as financial policies for prices and taxes, and encouraging the development of technology. We analyze the developing trends for metal recycling and WEEE recycling as China moves toward the Circular Economy. The essence of the Circular Economy is to achieve high performance economic growth with relatively low resource consumption and environmental burden. The limitation of the Circular Economy concept lies in its not changing the mass production and consumption system. As progress is made towards the Circular Economy in China, the impact on Japanese recycling systems will probably increase.