Measuring progress toward a circular economy of the ASEAN Community

Nargessadat Emami, Alessio Miatto, Shabbir Gheewala, Natthanij Soonsawad, Thi Cuc Nguyen, Anthony SF Chiu, Ivan Henderson Gue, Marianne Faith Martinico‐Perez, Xaysackda Vilaysouk and Heinz Schandl

Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2025, vol. 29, issue 1, 129-144

Abstract: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has committed to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which necessitates accelerated progress in sustainable production and consumption. This study employs an economy‐wide material flow analysis to assess the ASEAN community's material use, waste generation, emissions, resource efficiency, and circularity rate. The analysis encompasses the entire ASEAN economy, with a detailed focus on four member countries: Thailand, Laos, the Philippines, and Vietnam. In 2018, ASEAN countries collectively extracted 6449 million metric tons (Mt) of resources, exported 1302 Mt, and recorded a domestic material consumption (DMC) of 6376 Mt. Approximately 40% of this DMC contributed to material stock accumulation. Of the domestic processed output, 58% was released as air emissions, and the end‐of‐life recycling rate was 1.3%. Resource efficiency trends from 1970 to 2021 reveal a general improvement across the region, although Laos and Vietnam exhibited lower efficiency levels than the ASEAN average. The study concludes by comparing the sustainability policy capacities of the four selected countries with their material flows, identifying key areas requiring policy intervention and improvement.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.13597

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:inecol:v:29:y:2025:i:1:p:129-144

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=1088-1980

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Industrial Ecology is currently edited by Reid Lifset

More articles in Journal of Industrial Ecology from Yale University
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().