The collapse of the global plastic waste trade: Structural change, a cascading failure process and potential solutions

2021 ◽  
pp. 127935
Author(s):  
Cai Li ◽  
Ling Wang ◽  
Jinsong Zhao ◽  
Liangchun Deng ◽  
Shuxia Yu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Structural Change ◽  
Failure Process ◽  
Plastic Waste ◽  
Cascading Failure ◽  
Waste Trade

scholarly journals China’s plastic import ban increases prospects of environmental impact mitigation of plastic waste trade flow worldwide

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zongguo Wen ◽  
Yiling Xie ◽  
Muhan Chen ◽  
Christian Doh Dinga
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Trade Flow ◽  
Plastic Waste ◽  
Sharp Decline ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Waste Trade ◽  
Treatment Structure

AbstractSince the late 1990s, the trend of plastic waste shipment from developed to developing countries has been increasing. In 2017, China announced an unprecedented ban on its import of most plastic waste, resulting in a sharp decline in global plastic waste trade flow and changes in the treatment structure of countries, whose impacts on global environmental sustainability are enormous but yet unexamined. Here, through the life cycle assessment (LCA) method, we quantified the environmental impacts of changes in the flow patterns and treatment methods of 6 types of plastic waste in 18 countries subsequent to the ban. In the short term, the ban significantly improved four midpoint indicators of environmental impact, albeit contributed to global warming. An annual saving of about 2.35 billion euros of eco-cost was realized, which is equivalent to 56% of plastic waste global trade value in 2017. To achieve global environmental sustainability in the long run, countries should gradually realize the transition from export to domestic management, and from landfill to recycling, which would realize eco-costs savings of about 1.54–3.20 billion euros.

Cascading failure with preferential redistribution on bus–subway coupled network

2021 ◽  
pp. 2150103
Author(s):  
Sonnam Jo ◽  
Liang Gao ◽  
Feng Liu ◽  
Menghui Li ◽  
Zhesi Shen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Transport ◽  
Failure Process ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Urban Transport ◽  
Traffic Load ◽  
Transport Systems ◽  
Cascading Failure ◽  
Passenger Flow ◽  
Urban Public Transport ◽  
Overall Performance

Robustness studies on integrated urban public transport networks have attracted growing attention in recent years due to the significant influence on the overall performance of urban transport system. In this paper, topological properties and robustness of a bus–subway coupled network in Beijing, composed of both bus and subway networks as well as their interactions, are analyzed. Three new models depicting cascading failure processes on the coupled network are proposed based on an existing binary influence modeling approach. Simulation results show that the proposed models are more accurate than the existing method in reflecting actual passenger flow redistribution in the cascading failure process. Moreover, the traffic load influence between nodes also plays a vital role in the robustness of the network. The proposed models and derived results can be utilized to improve the robustness of integrated urban public transport systems in traffic planning.

scholarly journals Probabilistic Vulnerability Assessment of Transmission Lines Considering Cascading Failures

Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 1994
Author(s):  
Yanchen Liu ◽  
Minfang Peng ◽  
Xingle Gao ◽  
Haiyan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Transmission Lines ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Failure Process ◽  
Power Grids ◽  
Weak Links ◽  
Cascading Failure ◽  
Cascading Failures ◽  
Stable Operation ◽  
Chain Model ◽  
Systems Research

The prevention of cascading failures and large-scale power outages of power grids by identifying weak links has become one of the key topics in power systems research. In this paper, a vulnerability radius index is proposed to identify the initial fault, and a fault chain model of cascading failure is developed with probabilistic attributes to identify the set of fault chains that have a significant impact on the safe and stable operation of power grids. On this basis, a method for evaluating the vulnerability of transmission lines based on a multi-criteria decision analysis is proposed, which can quickly identify critical transmission lines in the process of cascading failure. Finally, the proposed model and method for identifying vulnerable lines during the cascading failure process is demonstrated on the IEEE-118 bus system.

scholarly journals Ecologically Unequal Exchange of Plastic Waste?

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 265-287
Author(s):  
Yikang Bai ◽  
Jennifer Givens
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
International Trade ◽  
Global South ◽  
High Income ◽  
Plastic Waste ◽  
Global Trade ◽  
Exchange Relationships ◽  
Unequal Exchange ◽  
Global North ◽  
Waste Trade

Plastic production has been increasing since mass production of plastics started in the 1950s. As plastic production has continued to rise, so has plastic waste. Meanwhile, international trade in plastic waste has increased as well. The narrative about global trade in plastic waste oftentimes is that the Global North transfers waste to the Global South. However, little is known quantitatively about the extent to which the Global North shifts environmental harms of plastic waste to the Global South. We examine the extent to which global trade in plastic waste provides evidence for ecologically unequal exchange relationships from 2003 to 2013. We then explore whether plastic waste can be a resource for some countries. Specifically, we investigate how trade in plastic waste is associated with level of economic development in high-income countries and non-high-income countries. The findings provide nuanced evidence of ecologically unequal exchange relationships between high-income countries and non-high-income countries in plastic waste trade. The results also indicate that higher plastic waste import is associated with greater economic development in non-high-income countries. This research advances our understanding of the theory of ecologically unequal exchange in the context of international trade in plastic waste.

Structure of the global plastic waste trade network and the impact of China’s import Ban

2020 ◽  
Vol 153 ◽  
pp. 104591 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Wang ◽  
Longfeng Zhao ◽  
Ming K Lim ◽  
Wei-Qiang Chen ◽  
John W. Sutherland
Keyword(s):  
Plastic Waste ◽  
Trade Network ◽  
Waste Trade ◽  
The Impact

An analysis of the plastic waste trade and management in Asia

2021 ◽  
Vol 119 ◽  
pp. 242-253
Author(s):  
Yangyang Liang ◽  
Quanyin Tan ◽  
Qingbin Song ◽  
Jinhui Li
Keyword(s):  
Plastic Waste ◽  
Waste Trade

scholarly journals The Evolutionary Trend and Impact of Global Plastic Waste Trade Network

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3662
Author(s):  
Changping Zhao ◽  
Mengru Liu ◽  
Huanzheng Du ◽  
Yu Gong
Keyword(s):  
Bilateral Trade ◽  
Plastic Waste ◽  
Evolutionary Trend ◽  
Trade Volume ◽  
Trade Network ◽  
Global Environmental Problems ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The World ◽  
Import And Export ◽  
Waste Trade

Marine plastic waste, global warming, and ozone holes have become global environmental problems that need to be resolved urgently. With the promulgation of plastic bans in many countries, the global plastic waste trade will undergo tremendous change. In order to explore the future evolutionary trend of the global plastic waste trade network, this paper focuses on the analysis of the import and export of plastic waste from major trading countries around the world. Based on the bilateral trade volume of plastic waste from 1990 to 2019, a global plastic waste trade network is constructed, and the structure and characteristics of the network are studied. The results show that the global plastic waste trade network has shifted its center of gravity, and the import center has gradually shifted from China to Southeast Asia. The global plastic waste trade network presents a sparse state. Moreover, the dependence of related countries on plastic waste trade decreases, whilst the closeness of trade links also decreases. Sudden factors such as plastic waste import bans have a disruptive impact on plastic waste management.

scholarly journals Simulation Study on Cascading Failure of Multimodal Transport Network

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Jingni Guo ◽  
Junxiang Xu ◽  
Zhenggang He ◽  
Wei Liao
Keyword(s):  
Social Impact ◽  
Failure Process ◽  
Network Capacity ◽  
Transport Network ◽  
Cascading Failure ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Load Redistribution ◽  
Correlation Degree ◽  
Multimodal Transport ◽  
The Impact

Cascading failure in multimodal transport network may cause huge economic loss and social impact, which has gradually attracted public attention. In view of the coupling effect of nodes in multimodal transport network and the higher complexity of cascading failure process, the concepts of node correlation degree and node cooperation degree are proposed to characterize the characteristics of the network, and a logit model is introduced to calculate the initial load of nodes. In the case of ignoring network interruption, we propose two load redistribution methods: local allocation and global-local allocation. Taking the multimodal transport network in Sichuan–Tibet region of China as an example, the cascading failure effect of multimodal transport network in Sichuan–Tibet region is quantified by sensitivity analysis. The results show that when the load of the multimodal transport network in Sichuan–Tibet region exceeds the maximum capacity but does not exceed 150%∼170% of the network capacity, the network can still operate normally. In addition, the nodes in the multimodal transport network should have 0.3∼0.5 scalable space. In the cascading failure control method, load redistribution based on global-local allocation can minimize the impact of node overload.

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