Circular Economy
Events
First starter, but not finisher
The aversion against wasteful behaviour is something that is ingrained in Japan’s DNA. The term ‘mottainai’ is often used to convey a feeling of regret when something is wasted without deriving its full value. It does not come as a surprise then, that Japan was one of the first in the world to establish a Circular Economy Vision (in 1999!). A circular economy is key to limit resource dependency and increase economic resilience.
A long road ahead
Yet, nowadays Japan is far behind: it is the 7th largest waste producer of the OECD-countries and only 20% is recycled, one of the lowest recycling rates in the OECD. Of the remaining waste, 78% is incinerated and in some cases used to generate electricity, which Japan considers a sustainable practice. While Japan’s waste collection and -separation infrastructure is advanced, the 4 R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle, repurpose) of a circular economy are still not at the heart of its waste strategy.
Enacting new initiatives
Since adopting the Circular Economy Vision in May 2020, the Japanese government is striving to achieve a higher degree of circularity in a shorter time span, with new initiatives such as sharing best practices with other countries, government-industry-academia collaboration and looking into new solutions such as electronic waste extraction (urban mining).
Dutch value
In recent years, the Netherlands has made significant accomplishment to realise a circular economy for instance in the field of smart recycling and circular architecture. Dutch startups and scale-ups have (digital) innovative design solutions to limit waste production and overconsumption and developed ways to make the supply chain more transparent, for example through the use of blockchain.
