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7B - Sustainable development indicators (WEP/239) Extended material flow analysis considering downstream hidden flows. Terazono, Atsushi1, Moriguchi, Yuichi1, Yang, Jianxin1, Sakai, Shin-ich1, 1 National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan ABSTRACT- Resources and waste issues have been becoming international concerns these days. In order to discuss the perspectives for material cycles from the viewpoint of life-cycle on the products in Japan, we cannot neglect the ′Hidden Flows′ in foreign countries in the upstream and downstream. The recent material flow analysis researches have made clear the magnitude of a certain upstream ′Hidden Flows′ and show that domestic consumption of resources causes serious environmental burdens to other countries as well as in its own country. However, the downstream ′Hidden Flows′ associated with waste management (or reuse/recycling) stage is not yet clear. Taking into consideration that many used products are exported from Japan to (mostly Asian) other countries sometimes for recycling, we propose the concept of extended material flow analysis including the downstream ′Hidden Flows′. The extended material flow analysis estimates the international material flow after consumption stage and could evaluate the usefulness of international recycling network. The difficulty is that there is very limited information on how such used products are handled or recycled under some legislation in each of other countries. This study takes the case of electric and electronic products and their recycling. Key words: hidden flows, material flow analysis, recycling, Asia |
