Developing Pathway for Circular Economy: Enhancing Collaboration to Strengthen Global Circular Value Chains
Description
The unsustainable nature of linear economic models in a world with finite resources has become evident and has fuelled a shift towards circular economies. While discussion and circular economy efforts are closely connected to the national level, a transition towards a more resource efficient and circular economy has broad linkages with international trade. The circular economy may affect international trade patterns at multiple stages of a product's life: the extraction of raw materials, design and production, distribution and marketing, the sale of used goods or components, the recycling of end-of-life products, the movement of waste materials, and the growth of related services and new circular business models. International co-operation on circular economy value chains could be explored for possible harmonization of quality standards of materials, promoting demand for sustainable and secondary raw materials, to remove unnecessary regulatory barriers, avoid environmentally harmful activities, and to create demands in green job.
Although circular economy implementation promises to decouple growth from irreversible environmental harm, certain areas encounter complexities that could create unintended negative consequences that needed to be addressed if global circular economy is to be made equitable and fair across the border—one of the issues is on how we govern how waste is traded. In terms of trade in waste, imports by non-OECD countries declined by 9% between 2021 and 2022, from 2.2 Mt to 2.0 Mt. However, non-OECD countries, notably in the Southeast Asia region, remain among the largest importers of plastic waste and scrap.
Circular economy gives many new opportunities to source materials for production and consumption, extending the lives of current materials in the value chains. For circularity to grow, technical barriers should be removed through mutual recognition or harmonization of standards. Traceability is also important while also encouraged through facilitation measures. The awareness and capacity along the value chains is needed to ensure the circular trade is carried in a sustainable manner and create a fair pathway for the different strata in societies and across countries. Some multi- stakeholder platforms have been formed to create the ecosystem for circular economy overcoming the challenges.
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