Peran Langsung NGO dalam Pembuatan Kebijakan Luar Negeri Indonesia terkait Sampah Impor 2019: Studi Kasus ECOTON

In 2018, the world of global waste trade received a major shick that has an impact to both waste exporting countries and waste importing countries, and that was the closure of waste imports by China, which was the largest recipient country at that time through National Sword Policy. Exporting countries were forced to duvert their waste to the recipient countries that have not implemented new policies related to the imported waste such as Indonesia. As a result, Indonesia received a significant increase imported waste and cause a negative impact on various sectors, one of which was the environment sector. This then triggered some parties who have concerns regarding environmental issue such as ECOTON to resolve this issue by pressing the government to make new policies to stop imported waste that continues to degrade the environment.the author use a qualitative-descriptive method so that the authors can explain in detail and systematically the role of ECOTON in foreign policy making by using the theory of the direct role of NGOs in foreign policy making as the basis.

The Evolutionary Trend and Impact of Global Plastic Waste Trade Network

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.

Ecologically Unequal Exchange of Plastic Waste?

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.

The Impact of China’s Tightening Environmental Regulations on International Waste Trade and Logistics

In recent years, China’s influence as the dominant importer of waste products has reshaped global waste trade through restrictive programs such as Operation Green Fence in 2013 and National Sword in 2017. These restrictions have greatly affected not only China’s import of waste products but also the international trade and global logistics of these products. China’s import restrictions in 2017 decreased the country’s import of waste plastic by 92% and used paper by 56%. It also increased the unit value of these two categories of waste by 27% and 13%, respectively, showing an improvement in the quality of imported waste. Most of these impacts originate from intensive margins. The restrictions diverted the flow of waste mostly to the low- and middle-income countries of the East Asian and Pacific regions along with Europe and Central Asia, as their imports increased by 161% and 266% for waste plastic and 101% and 77% for used paper, respectively. Compared with Operation Green Fence, the impact of the 2017 National Sword has been much higher, with shipping companies faced with a lack of products on backhaul routes and forced to change their longstanding practices.

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

Since 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.