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Incorporation of recycling flows into economy-wide material flow accounting and analysis: A case study for the Czech Republic
Resources, Conservation and Recycling 92 (2014) 78–84
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Resources, Conservation and Recycling journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/resconrec
Incorporation of recycling flows into economy-wide material flow accounting and analysis: A case study for the Czech Republic Jan Kovanda ∗ Charles University Environment Center, J. Martiho 2/407, 162 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 6 February 2014 Received in revised form 9 August 2014 Accepted 14 August 2014 Keywords: Economy-wide material flow accounting and analysis (EW-MFA) Indicators Cyclical use rate Recycling Waste treatment Czech Republic
a b s t r a c t Economy-wide material flow accounting and analysis (EW-MFA) is considered a convenient tool for monitoring the vast range of issues related to the consumption of materials. As an increase in recycling is considered a crucial way of decreasing environmental pressures from this consumption, it makes sense to develop an indicator based on EW-MFA which would incorporate recycling flows. A prominent example of such an indicator is the cyclical use rate, which was developed by the Japanese Fundamental Plan for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society. We calculated this indicator for the Czech Republic for 2002–2011 and proved that it can also be calculated for countries other than Japan, even though we encountered some unclear methodological issues related to specific features of the Czech waste management system. We further developed two modifications of the indicator taking into consideration that one purpose of the cyclical use rate is to express the ratio of consumption of secondary (recycled) materials and primary raw materials. We discussed these modifications and showed that overall cyclical use rate in the Czech Republic lags behind Japan both in terms of absolute value and trend development, although the indicator is higher for biomass in the Czech Republic. We also showed that this unfavorable evaluation is in contradiction with some classic waste indicators, such as treatment of waste by main treatment methods which is favorably evaluated in the Czech Republic. We concluded that it would be advisable to analyze measures for increasing recycling rates introduced by Japan and assess their possible transposition into the Czech Republic’s institutional and legal framework for waste management. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction Consumption of materials is an important pre-requisite for the economy to produce goods and services that sustain our standard of living (Ayres and Warr, 2009). Utilization of materials is also related to significant environmental pressures (Ayres and Simonis, 1994; Fischer-Kowalski and Haberl, 1993; Van der Voet et al., 2009; Weizsäcker et al., 2009). This is why the issues of resource supply, resource scarcity and resource efficiency, as well as pressures and impacts related to resource use have been gaining renewed political momentum at both the national and international levels over the past decade (Commission of the European Communities, 2005, 2011; Fischer-Kowalski et al., 2011; OECD, 2008). The notion of socio-industrial or socioeconomic metabolism has been introduced as a concept to describe the resource use of national economies.
∗ Tel.: +420 220 199 476; fax: +420 220 199 462. E-mail address: [email protected] http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2014.08.006 0921-3449/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Based on this concept, the economy-wide material flow accounting and analysis (EW-MFA) and derived indicators have been established as the most widespread tools useful for monitoring the vast range of issues related to the consumption of materials (Behrens et al., 2007; Giljum, 2004; Kovanda and Hak, 2008; Weisz et al., 2006). EW-MFA was developed during the 1990s by various research institutes and organizations (Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan, 1992; Schütz and Bringezu, 1992; Steurer, 1992) and subsequently standardized in methodological guides (Eurostat, 2001, 2012). EW-MFA quantifies the physical exchange between a national economy, the environment, and foreign economies on the basis of the total material mass flowing across the boundaries of the national economy. The analysis focuses on solid materials and typically excludes water and air. This inventory of material flows serves as a basis for compilation of an array of indicators. These can be used for various purposes, including, for instance, assessment of the physical scale of the economy and total environmental pressure related to use of materials, measuring efficiency
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of use of materials and decoupling of environmental pressure from economic growth, and monitoring shifts of environmental pressure between states and world regions (OECD, 2008). EW-MFA focuses on consumption of primary raw material. Even though it can quantify emission flows and waste emitted to the environment and thus allows for comparison of total input and output flows, it does not really take heed of recycled flows which are fed back to the economy. This can be considered a shortcoming of this approach because recycling presents a crucial tool for how to decrease consumption of primary materials and provides an important clue as to the efficiency of use of materials in the economy. The fact that EW-MFA does not define any recycling indicator was addressed by the Japanese Fundamental Plan for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society, which introduced the cyclical use rate indicator (Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan, 2003). It shows the share of cyclical use of materials in total use of materials, thus providing the missing information on how the economy stands with respect to consumption of primary materials and recycled materials, and their ratio. This indicator has been used and evaluated since then as part of the effort by Japan to establish an economy based on the cyclical use of materials. Its target is currently set at 17 percent by 2020 (Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan, 2013). Until now, economic development has typically been associated with a rapid rise in the use of natural resources. Driven by scientific and technological advances, the global consumption of construction materials grew by a factor of 34, of ores and minerals by a factor of 27, of fossil energy carriers by a factor of 12, and of biomass by a factor of 3.6 over the 20th century (Krausmann et al., 2009). This consumption and related emission and waste flows are the major cause of many environmental problems humans face today. These include structural landscape change, loss of biodiversity, acidification, eutrophication and global climate change (Giljum et al., 2005). One vision which could help to mitigate these negative changes is a resource-efficient and recycling-based society (Bringezu and Bleischwitz, 2009). The need to establish this kind of society is currently demonstrated not only by the Japanese effort to establish an economy based on the cyclical use of materials mentioned above, but also by many other high-level policy documents such as the EU Sustainable Development Strategy and a resource-efficient Europe – flagship initiative of the Europe 2020 strategy (Commission of the European Communities, 2006, 2011). There is currently a range of indicators showing macroeconomic recycling performance, for instance, the share of total waste production which is landfilled, incinerated and recycled. These indicators, however, can give misleading results as shown later on in the case of the Czech Republic. Large amounts of waste can be recycled and the indicators are evaluated as favorable, but society is still not based on the cyclical use of materials, as it consumed large amounts of primary raw materials. The cyclical use rate indicator which connects recycling and primary raw material use thus gives broader context to other recycling indicators, allows for a more discerning and correct evaluation, and increases their usefulness for environmental and sustainability policy-making. In the Czech Republic, EW-MFA has had quite a long history. It has been dealt with by the academic sphere as part of research projects since 2000 (Kovanda and Weinzettel, 2013; Kovanda et al., 2009, 2010; Scasny et al., 2003), but some selected indicators have also been compiled by the Czech Statistical Office since 2006 (Czech Statistical Office, 2006, various years-d). None of these activities, however, focused on how recycling can be integrated into the system of EW-MFA. The aim of this article is to close this gap. We took the proposed indicator of cyclical use rate as a starting point and applied it to the Czech Republic, taking into account the specific features of the Czech waste management system. Further, we elaborate on how this indicator could and/or should be amended in
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Fig. 1. Material balance of the economy depicting the components of the cyclical use rate indicator (PUc ).
order to better reflect the overall recycling efficiency of the economy. We calculated modified forms of this indicator and compared them to each other, as well as to the original indicator. In the discussion part of the article, we discuss the differences in the recycling performance of Japan and the Czech Republic, and the methodological issues related to calculating the proposed indicators. We conclude our article with a commitment to analyze measures for increasing the recycling rates introduced by Japan and to assess their suitability for the Czech Republic’s institutional and legal framework for waste management. 2. Methods and data 2.1. Standard format of the indicator of cyclical use rate The cyclical use rate indicator connects the topics of material consumption and waste management, allowing for an integrated approach to these related issues. The indicator can be calculated as follows (Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan, 2003): PUc =
Uc DMI + Uc
(1)
where PUc is the indicator of the cyclical use rate in percent, Uc is the cyclical use of materials and DMI is the direct material input. The scheme of the material balance of the economy depicting the indicator components is shown in Fig. 1. Uc is defined as the flow of materials that became waste, but which were fed back to the economy and used for production and/or consumption purposes, thus saving on the use of primary raw materials. This flow is composed of certain methods of waste treatment. In order to calculate it in the same way as in Japan we had to examine the waste management and reporting system in the Czech Republic. The current waste management system was introduced by Act No. 185/2001 Coll., on Waste, as amended. It defines three groups of waste management: recovery (R), disposal (D) and other types (N). All treatment methods covered by these groups of waste management are shown in the supplementary information to this article (SI1). It would seem that recovery (R) as a whole could be identified with Uc , but it showed that some of them refer to energy recovery (R1: use principally as a fuel or other means to generate energy) or pre-treatment of waste, which is treated by some other method later on (R12: treatment of waste for application of any of the operations numbered R1–R11). These cases were therefore excluded from Uc . On the other hand we found out that some treatment methods from Other types of waste treatment (N) fulfill the
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above broad definition of Uc and were also included in the indicator by the Japanese Fundamental Plan for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society. These were, for instance, use of waste for landscaping (N1), transfer of parts and wastes for re-use (N8) or composting (N13). In the end, we included these waste treatment methods in Uc : • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Solvent reclamation/regeneration (R2) Recycling/reclamation of organic substances (R3) Recycling/reclamation of metals (R4) Recycling/reclamation of other inorganic metals (R5) Acid and alkali regeneration (R6) Regeneration of substances for pollution abatement (R7) Recycling of catalytic converters (R8) Oil refining or other reuses of oil (R9) Land treatment resulting in benefits to agriculture or ecological improvements (R10) Other recovery of waste (R11) Use of waste for landscaping (N1) – construction waste only Waste water treatment sludge passed for use on agricultural land (N2) Transfer of parts and wastes for re-use (N8) Sale of wastes as a raw material (N10) Composting (N13) Remolding of tires (N15)
Regarding the use of waste for landscaping (N1), we included only construction waste, as after discussion with waste reporting experts we came to the conclusion that for other types of waste this treatment does not lead to a substitution of primary raw materials with waste, but is rather meant as a waste disposal treatment method. In order to come as close as possible to the Japanese definition of the indicator, we further included one item in Uc which is not reported in the waste statistics, but in the agricultural statistics in the Czech Republic – the use of manure as a fertilizer in agriculture. The logic behind this is that manure substitutes the use of industrial fertilizers, which would otherwise have to be produced from some primary raw materials. Another part of the indicator of cyclical use rate is direct material input (DMI). It is unambiguously defined by EW-MFA (Eurostat, 2001, 2012) and comprises the amount of domestically extracted raw material, harvested biomass and total imports (imports of raw materials, products and waste). DMI was used for the calculation of PUc without any modifications. Data to calculate the Uc of the Czech Republic were provided by the Czech Statistical Office (Czech Statistical Office, various years-b,c). For waste statistics, they were available for 2002–2011 only due to implementation of the latest Waste Law in 2001. The Czech Statistical Office is responsible for reporting the waste data to Eurostat and other international institutions and regularly carries out quality assessment of waste statistics, which ensures the methodological precision of waste data collection and international comparability. Data on DMI for 2002–2011 was also provided by the Czech Statistical Office (Czech Statistical Office, various years-d). The values of the cyclical use rate indicator are presented in total and in a breakdown by the main material categories in Section 3 (biomass, metals, non-metallic minerals and fossil fuels). For instance, the PUc for biomass was defined as: PUc-biomass =
Uc-biomass DMIbiomass + Uc-biomass
2.2. Modifications of the indicator One of the goals of the cyclical use rate indicator is to express the ratio of consumption of secondary (recycled) materials and primary raw materials. DMI, which should represent the consumption of primary materials, however, also contains imports of waste, secondary materials and scrap for further manufacturing and use. As these materials are secondary, it makes sense to subtract them from DMI and add them to Uc . To allow for this, we defined a modified version of the indicator of cyclical use rate as follows: PUcm1 =
Ucm1 DMI−im + Ucm1
(3)
where PUcm1 is the indicator of cyclical use rate in percent modified by imports of waste, secondary materials and scrap, Ucm1 is the cyclical use of materials, including these same imports, and DMI−im is the direct material input minus these imports. Data to calculate imports of waste, secondary materials and scrap in 2002–2011 were extracted from the Czech Statistical Office database on foreign trade (Czech Statistical Office, various years-a). In 2012, the Czech Statistical Office introduced a survey of domestically produced secondary materials. These are defined as “materials (including certified products), which are of the nature of side products, by-products, and treated waste, which ceased to be waste the moment they became compliant with the conditions and criteria for materials obtained from products and which are subject of a retake” (Czech Statistical Office, 2012a). This means that those materials are not reported as waste in the waste statistics and are not subject to the waste treatment methods mentioned above. In spite of this, they are used for production and consumption and replace primary materials in production chains. Following the above logic that the indicator of cyclical use rate should express the ratio of consumption of secondary materials and primary raw materials, it seems reasonable to include these materials in cyclical use of materials Uc . We therefore defined one more modified version of the indicator as: PUcm2 =
Ucm2 DMI + Ucm2
(4)
where PUcm2 is the cyclical use rate indicator in percent modified by domestically produced secondary materials, Ucm2 is the cyclical use of materials including domestically produced secondary materials, and DMI is the direct material input. Due to data availability (Czech Statistical Office, 2012a), this indicator was calculated for 2011 only. Finally, in order to take into account the consumption of all secondary (recycled) materials which occurs in the economy, we merged the above two modifications into one indicator defined as: PUcm1+2 =
Ucm1+2 DMI−im + Ucm1+2
(5)
where PUcm1+2 is the cyclical use rate indicator in percent modified by imports of waste, secondary materials and scrap, and by domestically produced secondary materials, Ucm1+2 is the cyclical use of materials including all these same materials, and DMI−im is the direct material input, excluding imports of waste, secondary materials and scrap. This indicator was also calculated for 2011 only. Similarly to PUc , modified indicators are presented in total and in a breakdown by the main material categories in Section 3.
(2)
where PUc-biomass is the indicator of cyclical use rate in percent for the biomass category, Uc-biomass is the cyclical use of biomass materials and DMI is the direct material input of biomass.
3. Results Fig. 2 shows the development of the indicator of cyclical use rate and its modifications in the Czech Republic.
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Fig. 2. Indicator of cyclical use rate and its modifications, Czech Republic, 2002–2011.
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Fig. 4. Indicator of cyclical use rate, Czech Republic, Japan, 2002–2011 (Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan, 2013).
The indicator of cyclical use rate (PUc ) started at 8.46 percent in 2002, was steady at first, declined in 2006 and then gradually increased. The indicator ended at 9.11 percent in 2011. The cyclical use rate indicator modified by imports of waste, secondary materials and scrap (PUcm1 ) exhibited a very similar development, but was 0.58 percentage points higher on average. It started at 8.97 percent in 2002 and ended at 9.79 percent in 2011. The indicator modified by domestically produced secondary materials (PUcm2 ) reached a significantly higher value in 2011 compared to the previous two indicators – 15.81 percent. Similarly, the cyclical use rate indicator modified by both imports of waste, secondary materials and scrap, and by domestically produced secondary materials (PUcm1+2 ), reached a high value of 16.45 percent in 2011. Fig. 3 shows the breakdown of the indicators by main material categories in 2011. The highest cyclical use rate for PUc was recorded for biomass (22.22 percent), followed by metals (12.59 percent), non-metallic minerals (7.04 percent) and fossil fuels (1.19 percent). The first modification of the indicator (PUcm1 ) somewhat increased the cyclical use rate for metals (by 2.7 percentage points to 15.28 percent) and biomass (by 1.37 percentage points to 23.59 percent), while non-metallic minerals and fossil fuels were much less affected. The second modification (PUcm2 ) had an even higher impact and increased the cyclical use rate of all material categories, but most significantly of fossil fuels and metals – by 12.39 percentage points to 13.58 percent and by 11.7 percentage points to 24.29 percent, respectively. The third modification (PUcm1+2 ) combines both previous modifications and led to an increase of cyclical use rate by 14.4 percentage points to 26.63 percent for metals, 12.5 percentage points to 13.68 percent for fossil fuels, 4.15 percentage
points to 11.19 percent for non-metallic minerals, and by 2.52 percentage points to 24.74 percent for biomass. Fig. 4 shows the comparison of the development of the indicator of cyclical use rate (PUc ) in the Czech Republic and in Japan. Japan shows a significantly higher cyclical use rate than the Czech Republic and the increase of the indicator over time is also steeper. In 2005, the value of the indicator was 12.2 percent in Japan and only 8.5 percent in the Czech Republic. In 2010, Japan recorded a 15.3 percent cyclical use rate while the Czech Republic recorded 9.01 percent. This means that the increase was 3.1 percentage points in Japan, but only 0.51 percentage points in the Czech Republic between 2005 and 2010. Fig. 4 does not show a comparison of modifications of the indicator of cyclical use rate, as those were specifically developed for this article and have not been calculated by Japan so far. A comparison of the indicator of cyclical use rate (PUc ) in the Czech Republic and Japan broken down by main material categories is shown in Fig. 5. The cyclical use rate is higher for biomass in the Czech Republic: it differs by 3.21 percentage points, reaching 24.54 percent in the Czech Republic and 21.34 percent in Japan in 2007. For all other material categories the Czech Republic shows a lower cyclical use rate. The difference is quite significant for non-metallic minerals, with 17.76 percent in Japan and 5.28 percent in the Czech Republic, which means a variation of 12.48 percentage points. The situation is more favorable for metals with values of 17.58 percent in Japan and 12.91 percent in the Czech Republic (a difference of 4.67 percentage points), and also for fossil fuels with values of 1.27 percent and 0.72 percent (a difference of 0.55 percentage points).
Fig. 3. Indicator of cyclical use rate and its modifications by main material categories, Czech Republic, 2011.
Fig. 5. Indicator of cyclical use rate by main material categories, Czech Republic, Japan, 2007 (Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan, 2010).
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4. Discussion 4.1. Indicators trends and international comparison The basic EU document on waste management is Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and the Council on waste and on repealing certain Directives (Waste Framework Directive). It defines the waste management hierarchy where waste prevention is in first place, followed by reuse, and material and energy recovery. Waste disposal assumes last place in the hierarchy. In the Czech Republic, the requirements of the European Directive were implemented through an amendment to Act No. 185/2001 Coll., on Waste, including the implementing regulations, in 2010. Taking into account the above hierarchy and that a focus on recycling was also an integral part of the founding Act No. 185/2001 Coll., on Waste, and that it is included in the Waste Management Plan of the Czech Republic (Government Regulation No. 197/2003 Coll.), the rather mild increase in the cyclical use rate indicator (PUc ) in 2002–2011 was not a great success. The message delivered by this indicator is also in contradiction with the evaluation of some classic waste indicators such as the treatment of waste by main treatment methods. If the latter indicator identifies recycling using the same treatment methods which were included in Uc , it can be favorably evaluated, as the material recovery exceeds 50 percent of total waste treatment in the Czech Republic (Czech Statistical Office, various years-b,c). On the other hand, the recycling use rate indicator communicates an important message to policy-makers that the Czech Republic is still far from being a society based on the cyclical use of materials. To become such a society it has not only to increase material recycling, but also to decrease overall consumption of primary raw materials. The latter issue is currently addressed by the Raw Material Policy and its draft up-date (Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic, 2012) and by Czech Strategic Framework for Sustainable Development (Government Council for Sustainable Development, 2010), yet the direct material input (DMI) of the Czech economy still increased by about 12.5 percent in 2002–2011 (Czech Statistical Office, various years-d). Some measures for reducing primary material flows specifically tailored for the Czech Republic are discussed in Kovanda and Weinzettel (2013). In regard to the indicator structure, the highest value was recorded for biomass. A major part of it, however, comes from the use of manure as a fertilizer in agriculture. If this flow was left out, the cyclical use rate for biomass would drop from 22.22 percent to 2.76 percent in 2011, and the overall value of the indicator would decrease from 9.11 percent to 4.7 percent. This means that use of manure is a crucial flow of cyclical use of materials constituting 50.83 percent of Uc . This shows what an important role agriculture still plays in the overall recycling rate in Czech society. The second highest cyclical use rate was recorded for metal ores and third highest for non-metallic minerals, even though the share of use of recycled metals in Uc – 12.04 percent – was lower compared to recycled non-metallic minerals (27.23 percent). This reflects the structure of the material basis of the Czech Republic, its DMI. As shown by Kovanda et al. (2010), non-metallic minerals, in particular construction materials, constitute a major part of DMI in the Czech Republic, accounting for more than 40 percent, while metals account for less than 10 percent of DMI. A quite small cyclical use rate of 1.19 percent was recorded for fossil fuels in 2011. This makes sense since fossil fuels are mostly used for energy purposes and a crucial part of them ends up as air emissions whose recycling potential is negligible. Modification of the cyclical use rate indicator by imports of waste, secondary materials and scrap increased its overall value by 7 percent on average, but there were differences for particular material groups. This can be explained by the price of waste
commodities. As shown by commodity flow surveys such as the one managed by the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics (2010), different materials have characteristic transport distances. For example, non-metallic minerals such as recycled demolition waste are usually transported less than 50 miles and their foreign trade is thus small. This is well documented with the breakdown of PUc and PUcm1 by material categories where non-metallic minerals show a negligible increase only. Regarding waste from fossil fuels, imports were also very low and included some plastics waste and organic solvents. The second modification of the indicator by domestically produced secondary materials increased the cyclical use rate much more significantly than the first modification, and the impact on particular material categories was also different, with the fossil fuels material category affected most. This is because more than half of the domestically produced secondary materials consists of wastes from thermal processes such as fly ash and slag from the combustion of fossil fuels, which are being used for production of cement, concrete and other building materials and products (Czech Statistical Office, 2012a). Fly ash and slag might be waste per se, but never actually enter waste statistics and are reported separately under the heading of secondary materials. However, before Act No. 185/2001 Coll., on Waste, came into force in the Czech Republic, these flows had been part of waste statistics. If this was changed back to what it was, fossil fuels would show the second highest cyclical use rate after biomass for PUc (13.58 percent in 2011). Another major part of domestically produced secondary materials includes materials from ferrous metals and construction minerals, which is reflected by an increase of the cyclical use rate of metals and non-metallic minerals in the PUcm2 . The Czech Republic does not perform very well in the overall cyclical use rate compared to Japan. Broken down by material categories, the Czech Republic outpaces Japan in the cyclical use rate of biomass. As the comparably high value of the indicator for biomass is mostly given by the use of manure in agriculture in the Czech Republic, one can conclude that the Czech agricultural system is less industrialized and depends less on the use of industrial fertilizers and more on the use of organic fertilizers than the Japanese agricultural system. This is confirmed by the use of industrial fertilizers, which is about 90 kg/ha of arable land in the Czech Republic, but as high as 290 kg/ha of arable land in Japan (World Bank, 2013). In the case of all other material categories, the Japanese production system is more effective in regard to the recycling efficiency of the economy. Modern industrial economies strive to increase recycling rates in order to reduce the costs of production and pressures exerted on the environment. Japan took a lead in these efforts and developed a Fundamental Plan for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society (Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan, 2003), based on its Basic Act for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society (Act No. 110/2000), and implemented related measures in a comprehensive and structured manner in order to meet its goals. These measures include proper use of economic instruments, promotion of education and learning, enhancement of public relations activities, support for civil activities and human resources development, implementation of research and promotion of science and technology for recycling or promotion of urban redevelopment projects, and zero emission plans (Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan, 2010). The current third edition of the Fundamental Plan (Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan, 2013) proposes other measures, such as the establishment and optimization of local recycling zones, supporting the use of biomass-based waste for biogas and energy production, and assisting the introduction of advanced recycling industries in other countries in order to deploy sophisticated technology internationally. Since the Czech Republic performs significantly worse in overall recycling rates compared to Japan, it would be advisable to
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analyze these measures and assess their possible transposition into the Czech Republic’s institutional and legal framework for waste management. There is a unique opportunity for this right now, as there is work on plans for waste prevention currently under way in the Czech Republic (CENIA, 2013). These plans present a tool for the introduction of new innovative measures which could help to boost recycling and thus the overall material efficiency of the Czech economy.
4.2. Methodological aspects Development of the Czech definition of the cyclical use rate indicator and in particular the composition of Uc was driven by an effort to comply with the broader definition of the indicator and to be comparable with the Japanese version. Waste treatment methods selected for inclusion in Uc are listed in Section 2.1. There are, however, other waste treatment methods which could theoretically be included. These are use of waste for deposit reclamation (N11) and deposit of wastes as technological material to make landfills safe (N12). N11 and N12 have not been included for similar reasons as use of non-construction waste for landscaping (N1). We discussed these treatment methods with waste reporting experts and they indicated that N11, N12 and N1 of non-construction waste are often used as hidden ways of waste disposal without any implications for savings in consumption of primary raw materials. These wastes should be correctly reported under Deposit Into or Onto Land (D1), but are not, as D1 requires payment of waste deposition fees while N1, N11 and N12 do not. If N11 and N12 were included in the indicator, the PUc value for 2011 would increase from 9.11 percent to 9.55 percent. If use of non-construction waste for landscaping (N1) was further added, the indicator would increase to 10.09 percent. The overall increase would thus account for 0.98 percentage points or 10.7 percent overall. All in all the value of PUc is likely to be somewhat underestimated as probably at least some wastes reported under N1 of non-construction waste, N11 and N12 lead to savings in consumption of primary raw materials, but 10.7 percent is the theoretical maximum upper boundary of this underestimation. Further uncertainties related to PUc include errors of measurements and/or errors associated with statistical surveys of waste statistics and DMI indicator statistics. These were estimated elsewhere at +10 percent/−10 percent and +6 percent/−3 percent, respectively (Kovanda et al., 2008). The fact that one of the goals of the cyclical use rate indicator is to express the ratio of consumption of secondary (recycled) materials and primary raw materials justifies well its modification by imports of waste, secondary materials and scrap from a conceptual point of view. The results for the Czech Republic, however, show that the difference between PUc and PUcm1 is rather small – PUcm1 is higher by only 7 percent on average – and of both indicator trends are almost identical. In order to include imports of waste, secondary materials and scrap in Ucm1 one has to screen trade statistics thoroughly and decide which foreign trade codes correspond to these imports. The foreign trade statistics primarily use combined nomenclature (CN), which was established by Council Regulation of European Economic Community No. 2658/87 and contains thousands of items. This task is therefore quite laborious and time consuming. For these reasons it would be worth re-examining in any follow-up study whether this modification is justified from technical and cost–benefit analysis points of view. Moreover, some uncertainties are related to a break-down of the trade flows of waste by main the material categories shown in Fig. 2. This concerns, for instance, the code “50030000 Silk waste, incl. cocoons unsuitable for reeling, yarn waste and garnetted stock”, which does not specify whether it includes natural silk (biomass) or synthetic silk (fossil fuels) or both. This and similar
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items were therefore split half and half between the corresponding items. The modification of the indicator by domestically produced secondary materials substantially increases the value of the indicator by more than 73 percent. This high increase and the fact that domestically produced secondary materials significantly decrease the need for consumption of primary raw materials justifies the calculation of this modification. As no time series for the modified indicator is available right now it is not possible to judge whether the trends of PUc and PUcm2 will also differ. Due to the fact that the survey on domestically produced secondary materials was brand new in 2011, it cannot be considered definitively settled and might be susceptible to some methodological changes by the Czech Statistical Office in the following years. These changes would influence the value of PUcm2 , but it is still quite likely that the differences between PUc and PUcm2 would remain significant.
5. Conclusions This study proves that the cyclical use rate indicator can also be calculated for countries other than Japan. However, there might be some lack of clarity around methodological issues related to specific features of the waste management system in particular countries. In the Czech Republic, it was not quite clear which waste treatment methods should be selected for inclusion in cyclical use of materials (Uc ). We arrived at the most appropriate set of waste treatment methods by taking into account the broader definition of the indicator and estimating the possible underestimation of the indicator stemming from the non-inclusion of some other waste flows. We further developed two modifications of the indicator in consideration of the fact that one purpose of the cyclical use rate is to express the ratio of consumption of secondary (recycled) materials and primary raw materials. The first modification with imports of waste, secondary materials and scrap merely led to a mild increase and is quite laborious and time consuming to undertake. Its usefulness therefore needs to be further re-assessed. The second modification with domestically produced secondary materials, however, increased the indicators substantially and can be considered well justified. Even though the Czech Republic placed an emphasis on recycling in its institutional and legal framework for waste management, its overall cyclical use rate lags behind Japan both in terms of absolute value and trend development. This unfavorable evaluation is in contradiction with some classic waste indicators such as treatment of waste by main treatment methods which can be favorably evaluated in the Czech Republic. Broken down by material categories, the highest recycling rate was recorded for biomass, followed by metals, non-metallic minerals and fossil fuels. The high result for biomass – the only material category where the Czech Republic outpaced Japan – can be attributed to the crucial role which manure still plays in Czech agriculture, unlike Japan with its highly industrialized agriculture heavily dependent on mineral fertilizers. As pointed out above, modification of the indicator with domestically produced secondary materials significantly increased its value. The increase was especially striking in regard to fossil fuels and metals. For fossil fuels, wastes from thermal processes such as fly ash and slag from the combustion of fossil fuels were the primary reason for the rise. Documents related to the Japanese Fundamental Plan for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society offer a range of measures for increasing recycling rates. It would be beneficial to analyze these measures and assess their possible transposition into the Czech Republic’s institutional and legal framework for waste management. This could be done as part of waste prevention planning which is currently under way in the Czech Republic.
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Acknowledgment The research on the subject presented in this article was undertaken as a part of the research and development project No. P402/12/2116 “Various aspects of anthropogenic material flows in the Czech Republic”, funded by the Czech Science Foundation. This support is gratefully appreciated. Appendix A. Supplementary data Supplementary material related to this article can be found, in the online version, at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec. 2014.08.006. References Ayres RU, Simonis UE. Industrial metabolism: restructuring for sustainable development. Tokyo, New York: United Nations University Press; 1994. Ayres RU, Warr B. The economic growth engine: how energy and work drive material prosperity. Cheltenham, UK/Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar; 2009. Behrens A, Giljum S, Kovanda J, Niza S. The material basis of the global economy: worldwide patterns of natural resource extraction and their implications for sustainable resource use policies. Ecol Econ 2007;64:444–53. Bringezu S, Bleischwitz R. Sustainable resource management: global trends, visions and policies. Sheffield: Greenleaf Publishing Limited; 2009. CENIA. Report on the environment in the Czech Republic. Prague: Ministry of the Environment; 2013. Commission of the European Communities. Thematic strategy on the sustainable use of natural resources. Communication from the commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Brussels: Commission of the European Communities; 2005. Commission of the European Communities. Review of the EU sustainable development strategy (EU SDS): renewed strategy. Brussels: Commission of the European Communities; 2006. Commission of the European Communities. A resource-efficient Europe – flagship initiative under the Europe 2020 strategy. Brussels: Commission of the European Communities; 2011. Czech Statistical Office. Selected environmental accounts on macroeconomic level in the Czech Republic (NAMEA for air emissions in 1998, 1999, 2003 and MFA in 1993–2004). Prague: Czech Statistical Office; 2006. Czech Statistical Office. Generation, recovery and disposal of waste 2011. Prague: Czech Statistical Office; 2012a. Czech Statistical Office. Database on foreign trade. Prague: Czech Statistical Office; various years-a, http://apl.czso.cz/pll/stazo/STAZO.STAZO [accessed September 2013]. Czech Statistical Office. Final harvest figures. Prague: Czech Statistical Office; various years-b. Czech Statistical Office. Generation, recovery and disposal of waste. Prague: Czech Statistical Office; various years-c. Czech Statistical Office. Material flows accounts (selected indicators). Prague: Czech Statistical Office; various years-d. Eurostat. Economy-wide material flow accounts and derived indicators: a methodological guide. Luxembourg: Eurostat; 2001. Eurostat. Economy-wide material flow accounts: compilation guide 2012. Luxembourg: Eurostat; 2012. Fischer-Kowalski M, Haberl H. Metabolism and colonisation. Modes of production and the physical exchange between societies and nature. Innov Soc Sci Res 1993;6:415–42. Fischer-Kowalski M, Weizsäcker EU, Ren Y, Moriguchi Y, Crane W, Krausman F, et al. Decoupling natural resource use and environmental impacts from economic growth. A report of the working group on decoupling to the International Resource Panel. Geneva: United Nations Environment Programme; 2011.
Giljum S. Trade, material flows and economic development in the South: the example of Chile. J Ind Ecol 2004;8:241–61. Giljum S, Hak T, Hinterberger F, Kovanda J. Environmental governance in the European Union: strategies and instruments for absolute decoupling. Int J Sust Dev 2005;8:31–46. Government Council for Sustainable Development. Strategic framework for sustainable development in the CR. Prague: Ministry of the Environment; 2010. Kovanda J, Hak T. Changes in materials use in transition economies. J Ind Ecol 2008;12:721–38. Kovanda J, Hak T, Janacek J. Economy-wide material flow indicators in the Czech Republic: trends, decoupling analysis and uncertainties. Int J Environ Pollut 2008;35:25–41. Kovanda J, Weinzettel J. The importance of raw material equivalents in economywide material flow accounting and its policy dimension. Environ Sci Policy 2013;29:71–80. Kovanda J, Weinzettel J, Hak T. Analysis of regional material flows: the case of the Czech Republic. Resour Conserv Recycl 2009;53:243–54. Kovanda J, Weinzettel J, Hak T. Material flow indicators in the Czech Republic in light of the accession to the European Union. J Ind Ecol 2010;14:650–65. Krausmann F, Gingrich S, Eisenmenger N, Erb KH, Haberl H, Fischer-Kowalski M. Growth in global materials use, GDP and population during the 20th century. Ecol Econ 2009;68:2696–705. Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic. Draft raw material policy of the Czech Republic. Prague: Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic; 2012. Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan. Quality of the environment in Japan 1992. Tokyo: Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan; 1992 http://www.env.go.jp/en/wpaper/1992/index.html [accessed December 2013]. Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan. Fundamental plan for establishing a sound material-cycle society. Tokyo: Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan; 2003 www.gdrc.org/uem/waste/japan-3r/4-basicplan.pdf [accessed December 2013]. Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan. Establishing a sound materialcycle society: milestone toward a sound material-cycle society through changes in business and life styles. Tokyo: Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan; 2010 www.env.go.jp/en/recycle/smcs/a-rep/2010gs full.pdf [accessed December 2013]. Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan. Fundamental plan for establishing a sound material-cycle society. Tokyo: Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan; 2013 http://www.env.go.jp/en/focus/docs/05 wr.html [accessed December 2013]. OECD. Measuring material flows and resource productivity. Paris: OECD; 2008. Scasny M, Kovanda J, Hak T. Material flow accounts, balances and derived indicators for the Czech Republic during the 1990: results and recommendations for methodological improvements. Ecol Econ 2003;45:41–57. Schütz H, Bringezu S. Major material flows in Germany. Fresen Environ Bull 1992;1992:443–8. Steurer A. Stoffstrombilanz Österreich 1988. Vienna: Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies of Austrian Universities (IFF); 1992. U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Commodity flow survey. Washington, DC: Research and Innovative Technology Administration; 2010 http://www. rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/commodity flow survey /index.html [accessed December 2013]. Van der Voet E, Van Oers L, De Bruyn S, De Jong F, Tukker A. Environmental impact of the use of natural resources and products. Luxembourg: Eurostat; 2009. Weisz H, Krausmann F, Amann C, Eisenmenger N, Erb KH, Hubacek K, et al. The physical economy of the European Union: cross-country comparison and determinants of material consumption. Ecol Econ 2006;58:676–98. Weizsäcker EU, Hargroves K, Smith MH, Desha C, Stasinopoulos P. Factor five. Transforming the global economy through 80% improvements in resource productivity: a report to the Club of Rome. London; Sterling, VA: Earthscan/The Natural Edge Project; 2009. World Bank. World development indicators. Washington, DC: World Bank; 2013 http://databank.worldbank.org/data/views/variableselection/selectvariables. aspx?source=world-development-indicators [accessed December 2013].
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Resources, Conservation and Recycling journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/resconrec
Incorporation of recycling flows into economy-wide material flow accounting and analysis: A case study for the Czech Republic Jan Kovanda ∗ Charles University Environment Center, J. Martiho 2/407, 162 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 6 February 2014 Received in revised form 9 August 2014 Accepted 14 August 2014 Keywords: Economy-wide material flow accounting and analysis (EW-MFA) Indicators Cyclical use rate Recycling Waste treatment Czech Republic
a b s t r a c t Economy-wide material flow accounting and analysis (EW-MFA) is considered a convenient tool for monitoring the vast range of issues related to the consumption of materials. As an increase in recycling is considered a crucial way of decreasing environmental pressures from this consumption, it makes sense to develop an indicator based on EW-MFA which would incorporate recycling flows. A prominent example of such an indicator is the cyclical use rate, which was developed by the Japanese Fundamental Plan for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society. We calculated this indicator for the Czech Republic for 2002–2011 and proved that it can also be calculated for countries other than Japan, even though we encountered some unclear methodological issues related to specific features of the Czech waste management system. We further developed two modifications of the indicator taking into consideration that one purpose of the cyclical use rate is to express the ratio of consumption of secondary (recycled) materials and primary raw materials. We discussed these modifications and showed that overall cyclical use rate in the Czech Republic lags behind Japan both in terms of absolute value and trend development, although the indicator is higher for biomass in the Czech Republic. We also showed that this unfavorable evaluation is in contradiction with some classic waste indicators, such as treatment of waste by main treatment methods which is favorably evaluated in the Czech Republic. We concluded that it would be advisable to analyze measures for increasing recycling rates introduced by Japan and assess their possible transposition into the Czech Republic’s institutional and legal framework for waste management. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction Consumption of materials is an important pre-requisite for the economy to produce goods and services that sustain our standard of living (Ayres and Warr, 2009). Utilization of materials is also related to significant environmental pressures (Ayres and Simonis, 1994; Fischer-Kowalski and Haberl, 1993; Van der Voet et al., 2009; Weizsäcker et al., 2009). This is why the issues of resource supply, resource scarcity and resource efficiency, as well as pressures and impacts related to resource use have been gaining renewed political momentum at both the national and international levels over the past decade (Commission of the European Communities, 2005, 2011; Fischer-Kowalski et al., 2011; OECD, 2008). The notion of socio-industrial or socioeconomic metabolism has been introduced as a concept to describe the resource use of national economies.
∗ Tel.: +420 220 199 476; fax: +420 220 199 462. E-mail address: [email protected] http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2014.08.006 0921-3449/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Based on this concept, the economy-wide material flow accounting and analysis (EW-MFA) and derived indicators have been established as the most widespread tools useful for monitoring the vast range of issues related to the consumption of materials (Behrens et al., 2007; Giljum, 2004; Kovanda and Hak, 2008; Weisz et al., 2006). EW-MFA was developed during the 1990s by various research institutes and organizations (Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan, 1992; Schütz and Bringezu, 1992; Steurer, 1992) and subsequently standardized in methodological guides (Eurostat, 2001, 2012). EW-MFA quantifies the physical exchange between a national economy, the environment, and foreign economies on the basis of the total material mass flowing across the boundaries of the national economy. The analysis focuses on solid materials and typically excludes water and air. This inventory of material flows serves as a basis for compilation of an array of indicators. These can be used for various purposes, including, for instance, assessment of the physical scale of the economy and total environmental pressure related to use of materials, measuring efficiency
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of use of materials and decoupling of environmental pressure from economic growth, and monitoring shifts of environmental pressure between states and world regions (OECD, 2008). EW-MFA focuses on consumption of primary raw material. Even though it can quantify emission flows and waste emitted to the environment and thus allows for comparison of total input and output flows, it does not really take heed of recycled flows which are fed back to the economy. This can be considered a shortcoming of this approach because recycling presents a crucial tool for how to decrease consumption of primary materials and provides an important clue as to the efficiency of use of materials in the economy. The fact that EW-MFA does not define any recycling indicator was addressed by the Japanese Fundamental Plan for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society, which introduced the cyclical use rate indicator (Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan, 2003). It shows the share of cyclical use of materials in total use of materials, thus providing the missing information on how the economy stands with respect to consumption of primary materials and recycled materials, and their ratio. This indicator has been used and evaluated since then as part of the effort by Japan to establish an economy based on the cyclical use of materials. Its target is currently set at 17 percent by 2020 (Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan, 2013). Until now, economic development has typically been associated with a rapid rise in the use of natural resources. Driven by scientific and technological advances, the global consumption of construction materials grew by a factor of 34, of ores and minerals by a factor of 27, of fossil energy carriers by a factor of 12, and of biomass by a factor of 3.6 over the 20th century (Krausmann et al., 2009). This consumption and related emission and waste flows are the major cause of many environmental problems humans face today. These include structural landscape change, loss of biodiversity, acidification, eutrophication and global climate change (Giljum et al., 2005). One vision which could help to mitigate these negative changes is a resource-efficient and recycling-based society (Bringezu and Bleischwitz, 2009). The need to establish this kind of society is currently demonstrated not only by the Japanese effort to establish an economy based on the cyclical use of materials mentioned above, but also by many other high-level policy documents such as the EU Sustainable Development Strategy and a resource-efficient Europe – flagship initiative of the Europe 2020 strategy (Commission of the European Communities, 2006, 2011). There is currently a range of indicators showing macroeconomic recycling performance, for instance, the share of total waste production which is landfilled, incinerated and recycled. These indicators, however, can give misleading results as shown later on in the case of the Czech Republic. Large amounts of waste can be recycled and the indicators are evaluated as favorable, but society is still not based on the cyclical use of materials, as it consumed large amounts of primary raw materials. The cyclical use rate indicator which connects recycling and primary raw material use thus gives broader context to other recycling indicators, allows for a more discerning and correct evaluation, and increases their usefulness for environmental and sustainability policy-making. In the Czech Republic, EW-MFA has had quite a long history. It has been dealt with by the academic sphere as part of research projects since 2000 (Kovanda and Weinzettel, 2013; Kovanda et al., 2009, 2010; Scasny et al., 2003), but some selected indicators have also been compiled by the Czech Statistical Office since 2006 (Czech Statistical Office, 2006, various years-d). None of these activities, however, focused on how recycling can be integrated into the system of EW-MFA. The aim of this article is to close this gap. We took the proposed indicator of cyclical use rate as a starting point and applied it to the Czech Republic, taking into account the specific features of the Czech waste management system. Further, we elaborate on how this indicator could and/or should be amended in
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Fig. 1. Material balance of the economy depicting the components of the cyclical use rate indicator (PUc ).
order to better reflect the overall recycling efficiency of the economy. We calculated modified forms of this indicator and compared them to each other, as well as to the original indicator. In the discussion part of the article, we discuss the differences in the recycling performance of Japan and the Czech Republic, and the methodological issues related to calculating the proposed indicators. We conclude our article with a commitment to analyze measures for increasing the recycling rates introduced by Japan and to assess their suitability for the Czech Republic’s institutional and legal framework for waste management. 2. Methods and data 2.1. Standard format of the indicator of cyclical use rate The cyclical use rate indicator connects the topics of material consumption and waste management, allowing for an integrated approach to these related issues. The indicator can be calculated as follows (Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan, 2003): PUc =
Uc DMI + Uc
(1)
where PUc is the indicator of the cyclical use rate in percent, Uc is the cyclical use of materials and DMI is the direct material input. The scheme of the material balance of the economy depicting the indicator components is shown in Fig. 1. Uc is defined as the flow of materials that became waste, but which were fed back to the economy and used for production and/or consumption purposes, thus saving on the use of primary raw materials. This flow is composed of certain methods of waste treatment. In order to calculate it in the same way as in Japan we had to examine the waste management and reporting system in the Czech Republic. The current waste management system was introduced by Act No. 185/2001 Coll., on Waste, as amended. It defines three groups of waste management: recovery (R), disposal (D) and other types (N). All treatment methods covered by these groups of waste management are shown in the supplementary information to this article (SI1). It would seem that recovery (R) as a whole could be identified with Uc , but it showed that some of them refer to energy recovery (R1: use principally as a fuel or other means to generate energy) or pre-treatment of waste, which is treated by some other method later on (R12: treatment of waste for application of any of the operations numbered R1–R11). These cases were therefore excluded from Uc . On the other hand we found out that some treatment methods from Other types of waste treatment (N) fulfill the
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above broad definition of Uc and were also included in the indicator by the Japanese Fundamental Plan for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society. These were, for instance, use of waste for landscaping (N1), transfer of parts and wastes for re-use (N8) or composting (N13). In the end, we included these waste treatment methods in Uc : • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Solvent reclamation/regeneration (R2) Recycling/reclamation of organic substances (R3) Recycling/reclamation of metals (R4) Recycling/reclamation of other inorganic metals (R5) Acid and alkali regeneration (R6) Regeneration of substances for pollution abatement (R7) Recycling of catalytic converters (R8) Oil refining or other reuses of oil (R9) Land treatment resulting in benefits to agriculture or ecological improvements (R10) Other recovery of waste (R11) Use of waste for landscaping (N1) – construction waste only Waste water treatment sludge passed for use on agricultural land (N2) Transfer of parts and wastes for re-use (N8) Sale of wastes as a raw material (N10) Composting (N13) Remolding of tires (N15)
Regarding the use of waste for landscaping (N1), we included only construction waste, as after discussion with waste reporting experts we came to the conclusion that for other types of waste this treatment does not lead to a substitution of primary raw materials with waste, but is rather meant as a waste disposal treatment method. In order to come as close as possible to the Japanese definition of the indicator, we further included one item in Uc which is not reported in the waste statistics, but in the agricultural statistics in the Czech Republic – the use of manure as a fertilizer in agriculture. The logic behind this is that manure substitutes the use of industrial fertilizers, which would otherwise have to be produced from some primary raw materials. Another part of the indicator of cyclical use rate is direct material input (DMI). It is unambiguously defined by EW-MFA (Eurostat, 2001, 2012) and comprises the amount of domestically extracted raw material, harvested biomass and total imports (imports of raw materials, products and waste). DMI was used for the calculation of PUc without any modifications. Data to calculate the Uc of the Czech Republic were provided by the Czech Statistical Office (Czech Statistical Office, various years-b,c). For waste statistics, they were available for 2002–2011 only due to implementation of the latest Waste Law in 2001. The Czech Statistical Office is responsible for reporting the waste data to Eurostat and other international institutions and regularly carries out quality assessment of waste statistics, which ensures the methodological precision of waste data collection and international comparability. Data on DMI for 2002–2011 was also provided by the Czech Statistical Office (Czech Statistical Office, various years-d). The values of the cyclical use rate indicator are presented in total and in a breakdown by the main material categories in Section 3 (biomass, metals, non-metallic minerals and fossil fuels). For instance, the PUc for biomass was defined as: PUc-biomass =
Uc-biomass DMIbiomass + Uc-biomass
2.2. Modifications of the indicator One of the goals of the cyclical use rate indicator is to express the ratio of consumption of secondary (recycled) materials and primary raw materials. DMI, which should represent the consumption of primary materials, however, also contains imports of waste, secondary materials and scrap for further manufacturing and use. As these materials are secondary, it makes sense to subtract them from DMI and add them to Uc . To allow for this, we defined a modified version of the indicator of cyclical use rate as follows: PUcm1 =
Ucm1 DMI−im + Ucm1
(3)
where PUcm1 is the indicator of cyclical use rate in percent modified by imports of waste, secondary materials and scrap, Ucm1 is the cyclical use of materials, including these same imports, and DMI−im is the direct material input minus these imports. Data to calculate imports of waste, secondary materials and scrap in 2002–2011 were extracted from the Czech Statistical Office database on foreign trade (Czech Statistical Office, various years-a). In 2012, the Czech Statistical Office introduced a survey of domestically produced secondary materials. These are defined as “materials (including certified products), which are of the nature of side products, by-products, and treated waste, which ceased to be waste the moment they became compliant with the conditions and criteria for materials obtained from products and which are subject of a retake” (Czech Statistical Office, 2012a). This means that those materials are not reported as waste in the waste statistics and are not subject to the waste treatment methods mentioned above. In spite of this, they are used for production and consumption and replace primary materials in production chains. Following the above logic that the indicator of cyclical use rate should express the ratio of consumption of secondary materials and primary raw materials, it seems reasonable to include these materials in cyclical use of materials Uc . We therefore defined one more modified version of the indicator as: PUcm2 =
Ucm2 DMI + Ucm2
(4)
where PUcm2 is the cyclical use rate indicator in percent modified by domestically produced secondary materials, Ucm2 is the cyclical use of materials including domestically produced secondary materials, and DMI is the direct material input. Due to data availability (Czech Statistical Office, 2012a), this indicator was calculated for 2011 only. Finally, in order to take into account the consumption of all secondary (recycled) materials which occurs in the economy, we merged the above two modifications into one indicator defined as: PUcm1+2 =
Ucm1+2 DMI−im + Ucm1+2
(5)
where PUcm1+2 is the cyclical use rate indicator in percent modified by imports of waste, secondary materials and scrap, and by domestically produced secondary materials, Ucm1+2 is the cyclical use of materials including all these same materials, and DMI−im is the direct material input, excluding imports of waste, secondary materials and scrap. This indicator was also calculated for 2011 only. Similarly to PUc , modified indicators are presented in total and in a breakdown by the main material categories in Section 3.
(2)
where PUc-biomass is the indicator of cyclical use rate in percent for the biomass category, Uc-biomass is the cyclical use of biomass materials and DMI is the direct material input of biomass.
3. Results Fig. 2 shows the development of the indicator of cyclical use rate and its modifications in the Czech Republic.
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Fig. 2. Indicator of cyclical use rate and its modifications, Czech Republic, 2002–2011.
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Fig. 4. Indicator of cyclical use rate, Czech Republic, Japan, 2002–2011 (Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan, 2013).
The indicator of cyclical use rate (PUc ) started at 8.46 percent in 2002, was steady at first, declined in 2006 and then gradually increased. The indicator ended at 9.11 percent in 2011. The cyclical use rate indicator modified by imports of waste, secondary materials and scrap (PUcm1 ) exhibited a very similar development, but was 0.58 percentage points higher on average. It started at 8.97 percent in 2002 and ended at 9.79 percent in 2011. The indicator modified by domestically produced secondary materials (PUcm2 ) reached a significantly higher value in 2011 compared to the previous two indicators – 15.81 percent. Similarly, the cyclical use rate indicator modified by both imports of waste, secondary materials and scrap, and by domestically produced secondary materials (PUcm1+2 ), reached a high value of 16.45 percent in 2011. Fig. 3 shows the breakdown of the indicators by main material categories in 2011. The highest cyclical use rate for PUc was recorded for biomass (22.22 percent), followed by metals (12.59 percent), non-metallic minerals (7.04 percent) and fossil fuels (1.19 percent). The first modification of the indicator (PUcm1 ) somewhat increased the cyclical use rate for metals (by 2.7 percentage points to 15.28 percent) and biomass (by 1.37 percentage points to 23.59 percent), while non-metallic minerals and fossil fuels were much less affected. The second modification (PUcm2 ) had an even higher impact and increased the cyclical use rate of all material categories, but most significantly of fossil fuels and metals – by 12.39 percentage points to 13.58 percent and by 11.7 percentage points to 24.29 percent, respectively. The third modification (PUcm1+2 ) combines both previous modifications and led to an increase of cyclical use rate by 14.4 percentage points to 26.63 percent for metals, 12.5 percentage points to 13.68 percent for fossil fuels, 4.15 percentage
points to 11.19 percent for non-metallic minerals, and by 2.52 percentage points to 24.74 percent for biomass. Fig. 4 shows the comparison of the development of the indicator of cyclical use rate (PUc ) in the Czech Republic and in Japan. Japan shows a significantly higher cyclical use rate than the Czech Republic and the increase of the indicator over time is also steeper. In 2005, the value of the indicator was 12.2 percent in Japan and only 8.5 percent in the Czech Republic. In 2010, Japan recorded a 15.3 percent cyclical use rate while the Czech Republic recorded 9.01 percent. This means that the increase was 3.1 percentage points in Japan, but only 0.51 percentage points in the Czech Republic between 2005 and 2010. Fig. 4 does not show a comparison of modifications of the indicator of cyclical use rate, as those were specifically developed for this article and have not been calculated by Japan so far. A comparison of the indicator of cyclical use rate (PUc ) in the Czech Republic and Japan broken down by main material categories is shown in Fig. 5. The cyclical use rate is higher for biomass in the Czech Republic: it differs by 3.21 percentage points, reaching 24.54 percent in the Czech Republic and 21.34 percent in Japan in 2007. For all other material categories the Czech Republic shows a lower cyclical use rate. The difference is quite significant for non-metallic minerals, with 17.76 percent in Japan and 5.28 percent in the Czech Republic, which means a variation of 12.48 percentage points. The situation is more favorable for metals with values of 17.58 percent in Japan and 12.91 percent in the Czech Republic (a difference of 4.67 percentage points), and also for fossil fuels with values of 1.27 percent and 0.72 percent (a difference of 0.55 percentage points).
Fig. 3. Indicator of cyclical use rate and its modifications by main material categories, Czech Republic, 2011.
Fig. 5. Indicator of cyclical use rate by main material categories, Czech Republic, Japan, 2007 (Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan, 2010).
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4. Discussion 4.1. Indicators trends and international comparison The basic EU document on waste management is Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and the Council on waste and on repealing certain Directives (Waste Framework Directive). It defines the waste management hierarchy where waste prevention is in first place, followed by reuse, and material and energy recovery. Waste disposal assumes last place in the hierarchy. In the Czech Republic, the requirements of the European Directive were implemented through an amendment to Act No. 185/2001 Coll., on Waste, including the implementing regulations, in 2010. Taking into account the above hierarchy and that a focus on recycling was also an integral part of the founding Act No. 185/2001 Coll., on Waste, and that it is included in the Waste Management Plan of the Czech Republic (Government Regulation No. 197/2003 Coll.), the rather mild increase in the cyclical use rate indicator (PUc ) in 2002–2011 was not a great success. The message delivered by this indicator is also in contradiction with the evaluation of some classic waste indicators such as the treatment of waste by main treatment methods. If the latter indicator identifies recycling using the same treatment methods which were included in Uc , it can be favorably evaluated, as the material recovery exceeds 50 percent of total waste treatment in the Czech Republic (Czech Statistical Office, various years-b,c). On the other hand, the recycling use rate indicator communicates an important message to policy-makers that the Czech Republic is still far from being a society based on the cyclical use of materials. To become such a society it has not only to increase material recycling, but also to decrease overall consumption of primary raw materials. The latter issue is currently addressed by the Raw Material Policy and its draft up-date (Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic, 2012) and by Czech Strategic Framework for Sustainable Development (Government Council for Sustainable Development, 2010), yet the direct material input (DMI) of the Czech economy still increased by about 12.5 percent in 2002–2011 (Czech Statistical Office, various years-d). Some measures for reducing primary material flows specifically tailored for the Czech Republic are discussed in Kovanda and Weinzettel (2013). In regard to the indicator structure, the highest value was recorded for biomass. A major part of it, however, comes from the use of manure as a fertilizer in agriculture. If this flow was left out, the cyclical use rate for biomass would drop from 22.22 percent to 2.76 percent in 2011, and the overall value of the indicator would decrease from 9.11 percent to 4.7 percent. This means that use of manure is a crucial flow of cyclical use of materials constituting 50.83 percent of Uc . This shows what an important role agriculture still plays in the overall recycling rate in Czech society. The second highest cyclical use rate was recorded for metal ores and third highest for non-metallic minerals, even though the share of use of recycled metals in Uc – 12.04 percent – was lower compared to recycled non-metallic minerals (27.23 percent). This reflects the structure of the material basis of the Czech Republic, its DMI. As shown by Kovanda et al. (2010), non-metallic minerals, in particular construction materials, constitute a major part of DMI in the Czech Republic, accounting for more than 40 percent, while metals account for less than 10 percent of DMI. A quite small cyclical use rate of 1.19 percent was recorded for fossil fuels in 2011. This makes sense since fossil fuels are mostly used for energy purposes and a crucial part of them ends up as air emissions whose recycling potential is negligible. Modification of the cyclical use rate indicator by imports of waste, secondary materials and scrap increased its overall value by 7 percent on average, but there were differences for particular material groups. This can be explained by the price of waste
commodities. As shown by commodity flow surveys such as the one managed by the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics (2010), different materials have characteristic transport distances. For example, non-metallic minerals such as recycled demolition waste are usually transported less than 50 miles and their foreign trade is thus small. This is well documented with the breakdown of PUc and PUcm1 by material categories where non-metallic minerals show a negligible increase only. Regarding waste from fossil fuels, imports were also very low and included some plastics waste and organic solvents. The second modification of the indicator by domestically produced secondary materials increased the cyclical use rate much more significantly than the first modification, and the impact on particular material categories was also different, with the fossil fuels material category affected most. This is because more than half of the domestically produced secondary materials consists of wastes from thermal processes such as fly ash and slag from the combustion of fossil fuels, which are being used for production of cement, concrete and other building materials and products (Czech Statistical Office, 2012a). Fly ash and slag might be waste per se, but never actually enter waste statistics and are reported separately under the heading of secondary materials. However, before Act No. 185/2001 Coll., on Waste, came into force in the Czech Republic, these flows had been part of waste statistics. If this was changed back to what it was, fossil fuels would show the second highest cyclical use rate after biomass for PUc (13.58 percent in 2011). Another major part of domestically produced secondary materials includes materials from ferrous metals and construction minerals, which is reflected by an increase of the cyclical use rate of metals and non-metallic minerals in the PUcm2 . The Czech Republic does not perform very well in the overall cyclical use rate compared to Japan. Broken down by material categories, the Czech Republic outpaces Japan in the cyclical use rate of biomass. As the comparably high value of the indicator for biomass is mostly given by the use of manure in agriculture in the Czech Republic, one can conclude that the Czech agricultural system is less industrialized and depends less on the use of industrial fertilizers and more on the use of organic fertilizers than the Japanese agricultural system. This is confirmed by the use of industrial fertilizers, which is about 90 kg/ha of arable land in the Czech Republic, but as high as 290 kg/ha of arable land in Japan (World Bank, 2013). In the case of all other material categories, the Japanese production system is more effective in regard to the recycling efficiency of the economy. Modern industrial economies strive to increase recycling rates in order to reduce the costs of production and pressures exerted on the environment. Japan took a lead in these efforts and developed a Fundamental Plan for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society (Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan, 2003), based on its Basic Act for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society (Act No. 110/2000), and implemented related measures in a comprehensive and structured manner in order to meet its goals. These measures include proper use of economic instruments, promotion of education and learning, enhancement of public relations activities, support for civil activities and human resources development, implementation of research and promotion of science and technology for recycling or promotion of urban redevelopment projects, and zero emission plans (Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan, 2010). The current third edition of the Fundamental Plan (Ministry of the Environment – Government of Japan, 2013) proposes other measures, such as the establishment and optimization of local recycling zones, supporting the use of biomass-based waste for biogas and energy production, and assisting the introduction of advanced recycling industries in other countries in order to deploy sophisticated technology internationally. Since the Czech Republic performs significantly worse in overall recycling rates compared to Japan, it would be advisable to
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analyze these measures and assess their possible transposition into the Czech Republic’s institutional and legal framework for waste management. There is a unique opportunity for this right now, as there is work on plans for waste prevention currently under way in the Czech Republic (CENIA, 2013). These plans present a tool for the introduction of new innovative measures which could help to boost recycling and thus the overall material efficiency of the Czech economy.
4.2. Methodological aspects Development of the Czech definition of the cyclical use rate indicator and in particular the composition of Uc was driven by an effort to comply with the broader definition of the indicator and to be comparable with the Japanese version. Waste treatment methods selected for inclusion in Uc are listed in Section 2.1. There are, however, other waste treatment methods which could theoretically be included. These are use of waste for deposit reclamation (N11) and deposit of wastes as technological material to make landfills safe (N12). N11 and N12 have not been included for similar reasons as use of non-construction waste for landscaping (N1). We discussed these treatment methods with waste reporting experts and they indicated that N11, N12 and N1 of non-construction waste are often used as hidden ways of waste disposal without any implications for savings in consumption of primary raw materials. These wastes should be correctly reported under Deposit Into or Onto Land (D1), but are not, as D1 requires payment of waste deposition fees while N1, N11 and N12 do not. If N11 and N12 were included in the indicator, the PUc value for 2011 would increase from 9.11 percent to 9.55 percent. If use of non-construction waste for landscaping (N1) was further added, the indicator would increase to 10.09 percent. The overall increase would thus account for 0.98 percentage points or 10.7 percent overall. All in all the value of PUc is likely to be somewhat underestimated as probably at least some wastes reported under N1 of non-construction waste, N11 and N12 lead to savings in consumption of primary raw materials, but 10.7 percent is the theoretical maximum upper boundary of this underestimation. Further uncertainties related to PUc include errors of measurements and/or errors associated with statistical surveys of waste statistics and DMI indicator statistics. These were estimated elsewhere at +10 percent/−10 percent and +6 percent/−3 percent, respectively (Kovanda et al., 2008). The fact that one of the goals of the cyclical use rate indicator is to express the ratio of consumption of secondary (recycled) materials and primary raw materials justifies well its modification by imports of waste, secondary materials and scrap from a conceptual point of view. The results for the Czech Republic, however, show that the difference between PUc and PUcm1 is rather small – PUcm1 is higher by only 7 percent on average – and of both indicator trends are almost identical. In order to include imports of waste, secondary materials and scrap in Ucm1 one has to screen trade statistics thoroughly and decide which foreign trade codes correspond to these imports. The foreign trade statistics primarily use combined nomenclature (CN), which was established by Council Regulation of European Economic Community No. 2658/87 and contains thousands of items. This task is therefore quite laborious and time consuming. For these reasons it would be worth re-examining in any follow-up study whether this modification is justified from technical and cost–benefit analysis points of view. Moreover, some uncertainties are related to a break-down of the trade flows of waste by main the material categories shown in Fig. 2. This concerns, for instance, the code “50030000 Silk waste, incl. cocoons unsuitable for reeling, yarn waste and garnetted stock”, which does not specify whether it includes natural silk (biomass) or synthetic silk (fossil fuels) or both. This and similar
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items were therefore split half and half between the corresponding items. The modification of the indicator by domestically produced secondary materials substantially increases the value of the indicator by more than 73 percent. This high increase and the fact that domestically produced secondary materials significantly decrease the need for consumption of primary raw materials justifies the calculation of this modification. As no time series for the modified indicator is available right now it is not possible to judge whether the trends of PUc and PUcm2 will also differ. Due to the fact that the survey on domestically produced secondary materials was brand new in 2011, it cannot be considered definitively settled and might be susceptible to some methodological changes by the Czech Statistical Office in the following years. These changes would influence the value of PUcm2 , but it is still quite likely that the differences between PUc and PUcm2 would remain significant.
5. Conclusions This study proves that the cyclical use rate indicator can also be calculated for countries other than Japan. However, there might be some lack of clarity around methodological issues related to specific features of the waste management system in particular countries. In the Czech Republic, it was not quite clear which waste treatment methods should be selected for inclusion in cyclical use of materials (Uc ). We arrived at the most appropriate set of waste treatment methods by taking into account the broader definition of the indicator and estimating the possible underestimation of the indicator stemming from the non-inclusion of some other waste flows. We further developed two modifications of the indicator in consideration of the fact that one purpose of the cyclical use rate is to express the ratio of consumption of secondary (recycled) materials and primary raw materials. The first modification with imports of waste, secondary materials and scrap merely led to a mild increase and is quite laborious and time consuming to undertake. Its usefulness therefore needs to be further re-assessed. The second modification with domestically produced secondary materials, however, increased the indicators substantially and can be considered well justified. Even though the Czech Republic placed an emphasis on recycling in its institutional and legal framework for waste management, its overall cyclical use rate lags behind Japan both in terms of absolute value and trend development. This unfavorable evaluation is in contradiction with some classic waste indicators such as treatment of waste by main treatment methods which can be favorably evaluated in the Czech Republic. Broken down by material categories, the highest recycling rate was recorded for biomass, followed by metals, non-metallic minerals and fossil fuels. The high result for biomass – the only material category where the Czech Republic outpaced Japan – can be attributed to the crucial role which manure still plays in Czech agriculture, unlike Japan with its highly industrialized agriculture heavily dependent on mineral fertilizers. As pointed out above, modification of the indicator with domestically produced secondary materials significantly increased its value. The increase was especially striking in regard to fossil fuels and metals. For fossil fuels, wastes from thermal processes such as fly ash and slag from the combustion of fossil fuels were the primary reason for the rise. Documents related to the Japanese Fundamental Plan for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society offer a range of measures for increasing recycling rates. It would be beneficial to analyze these measures and assess their possible transposition into the Czech Republic’s institutional and legal framework for waste management. This could be done as part of waste prevention planning which is currently under way in the Czech Republic.
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