Understanding the Impacts of Transboundary Waste Shipment Policies: The Case of Plastic and Electronic Waste

Keshav Parajuly and Colin Fitzpatrick
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Keshav Parajuly: Sustainable Cycles Programme (SCYCLE), United Nations University, 53113 Bonn, Germany
Colin Fitzpatrick: Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, University of Limerick, Limerick V94 T9PX, Ireland

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-14

Abstract: Impact assessment is a part of the policy implementation cycle, which can support the design and implementation of effective policies at a minimum cost. It can be instrumental in understanding policy options available to tackle a particular issue before devising a policy and in analyzing the performance of already implemented policy instruments with respect to the desired goals. When it comes to environmental policies, demonstrating the worth and merit of any regulation is even more important. The knowledge gathered from the evaluation of existing policies can help improve the quality of new environmental policies. This paper analyzes policy impacts and their assessments related to the transboundary movement of waste. E-waste and plastic waste fractions are used as cases in order to study three associated policies and their impact assessments. Learnings from the analysis are summarized and measures for strengthening the impact assessment approaches are recommended based on the evidence from recent developments in the transboundary movement of waste fractions. Impact assessments of waste management and shipment policies could benefit from a more comprehensive but issue-oriented approach that looks beyond the short-term economic savings.

Keywords: impact assessment; policy evaluation; e-waste; plastic waste; waste shipment; Chinese import ban (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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