TY - JOUR

T1 - What goes around, comes around? Access and allocation problems in Global North-South waste trade

AU - Cotta, Benedetta

N1 - Funding Information: The authors would also like to gratefully acknowledge the partial support of CAPES for part of this work through subcontract PVE11/14 under their "Pesquisa Visitante Estrangeiro" program, and to Ciência sem Fronteiras that supports the student and postdocs involved with our Brasil dust/soiling reliability project. The feedback and additions provided by many members of PVQAT have been extremely beneficial in building this database of publications. Finally, we acknowledge the help and assistance of the Solar Energy Institute for India and the United States (SERIIUS), which maintains a strong leading research and development program in soiling and dust research and mitigation. This group is funded jointly by the United Stated Department of Energy and the India Office of Science and Technology in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. Publisher Copyright: © 2020, The Author(s).

PY - 2020/6/1

Y1 - 2020/6/1

N2 - Infamous cases of toxic waste trade and research on its health and environmental implications have made the global waste trade a prominent environmental and social justice issue. Recently, such trade has shifted towards extracting resources from waste as recyclable components and used goods which could create income-generating opportunities and reduce the environmental burdens of waste trade from Global North to Global South countries. Nevertheless, studies highlight persistent problems in the access to these resources and allocation of responsibilities, risks and burdens from processing and disposal of traded waste in Global South countries. This article aims to contribute to the lessons learnt on access and allocation with respect to waste trade by focusing on issues of equity, fairness and distributive justice. Two cases are analysed: trade in discarded electronic and electric equipment (EEE) between the EU and Africa and trade in plastic materials between the UK and China. This study shows that exports of used EEE and recyclable plastic materials exacerbate the environmental burdens of Global South countries while also exporting new environmental risks and social burdens. At the same time, new demands for justice have emerged from Global South countries through waste ship back initiatives, and new international measures have also been adopted. While the access and allocation lens enabled the identification of persistent problems in Global North-South waste trade, directing future Earth System Governance research to the demands emerging from the Global South countries could offer insights into how to better address these problems and deal with growing global inequalities.

AB - Infamous cases of toxic waste trade and research on its health and environmental implications have made the global waste trade a prominent environmental and social justice issue. Recently, such trade has shifted towards extracting resources from waste as recyclable components and used goods which could create income-generating opportunities and reduce the environmental burdens of waste trade from Global North to Global South countries. Nevertheless, studies highlight persistent problems in the access to these resources and allocation of responsibilities, risks and burdens from processing and disposal of traded waste in Global South countries. This article aims to contribute to the lessons learnt on access and allocation with respect to waste trade by focusing on issues of equity, fairness and distributive justice. Two cases are analysed: trade in discarded electronic and electric equipment (EEE) between the EU and Africa and trade in plastic materials between the UK and China. This study shows that exports of used EEE and recyclable plastic materials exacerbate the environmental burdens of Global South countries while also exporting new environmental risks and social burdens. At the same time, new demands for justice have emerged from Global South countries through waste ship back initiatives, and new international measures have also been adopted. While the access and allocation lens enabled the identification of persistent problems in Global North-South waste trade, directing future Earth System Governance research to the demands emerging from the Global South countries could offer insights into how to better address these problems and deal with growing global inequalities.

KW - Access and allocation

KW - Global North-South countries

KW - Global waste trade

KW - Discarded EEE

KW - Recyclable plastic material

KW - Sustainability Governance

KW - Environmental Governance

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85085153781&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10784-020-09479-3

DO - 10.1007/s10784-020-09479-3

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 20

SP - 255

EP - 269

JO - International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics

JF - International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics

SN - 1567-9764

IS - 2

ER -