Automobiles and Recycling - An Economic Geography Study of Distribution and Recycling in the Automobile Industry

摘要

This paper analyzes characteristics of a Cycle Economy, a key concept of today's Japanese environmental policy. In a Cycle Economy, the width of the cycle or loop may be neglected. Then it is important to design the spatial management system of wastes and post consumer goods from the view point of economic geography. Considering the location of industrial nodes, it is important to establish how efficient this industry collects waste and develops the markets of recycled goods. The Japanese government has adopted the Eco-Town Project to develop a vein industry. Administrative intervention is required to support the Eco-town project as a trial to overcome various regulations. Next the paper discusses five aspects of agglomeration of the Kitakyushu Eco Town Project. Until the 1980s, the disposal of End of Life Vehicles (ELV) was considered unproblematic in Japan. But in recent years, as environmental problems have attracted increasing attention, the processing of ELV has become a critical environmental issue. Discarded ELV represent a serious source of waste generation and pollution. After the EU Directive on ELV was published, the Japanese government has considered an ELV Recycling Act. In the EU Directive, producers must take back the ELV free of charge. To solve the problems, especially how to process ASR, the Japanese government requested car producers to take back ASR using EPR consideration. The EPR is the concept that manufacturers and importers of products should bear a significant burden of responsibility for the environmental impact of their products throughout the product life-cycle. This includes the upstream impact of materials selection, the impact of the manufacturing process itself, and the downstream impact from the use and disposal of end of life products. Producers accept responsibility when they design products to minimize the life-cycle environmental impact, and when they accept legal, physical, and socio-economic responsibility for environmental impact that cannot be estimated by the design alone.