IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/circec/v3y2023i3d10.1007_s43615-021-00097-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Political Economy of Australia’s Waste Crisis: From Neoliberalism to the Circular Economy Agenda

Author

Listed:
  • Wynston Joon Yuen Lee

    (RMIT University)

Abstract

The international trade of waste has come under public spotlight in recent years with China, the world’s main waste sink for several decades, effectively banning its waste imports in 2018 and subsequently starting a waste crisis in Australia. This article compares the perspectives of orthodox economics, circular economy and political economy on waste economics and policy in Australia. Taking an approach combining both qualitative and quantitative analysis, this article finds that the political economy of Australia’s waste crisis can be understood in terms of two phases: (1) an expansionary phase in Australia’s waste industry from the 1990s onwards, driven by export-oriented growth and neoliberal policy which ultimately led to a waste crisis in 2018, and (2) an emerging recovery stage for the industry led by circular economy policy and more domestically oriented development. These findings contribute to ongoing discourse on the circular economy agenda, demonstrating that in the case of Australia’s waste crisis, circular economy is more of a pragmatic strategy to stimulate economic recovery rather than some radical change towards environmental sustainability.

Suggested Citation

  • Wynston Joon Yuen Lee, 2023. "The Political Economy of Australia’s Waste Crisis: From Neoliberalism to the Circular Economy Agenda," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 1703-1721, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:circec:v:3:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s43615-021-00097-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s43615-021-00097-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s43615-021-00097-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s43615-021-00097-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Olga Fedotkina & Elena Gorbashko & Natalia Vatolkina, 2019. "Circular Economy in Russia: Drivers and Barriers for Waste Management Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-21, October.
    2. Trevor Zink & Roland Geyer, 2017. "Circular Economy Rebound," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 21(3), pages 593-602, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Etienne Lorang & Antonello Lobianco & Philippe Delacote, 2023. "Increasing Paper and Cardboard Recycling: Impacts on the Forest Sector and Carbon Emissions," Post-Print hal-04690101, HAL.
    2. Monia Niero & Charlotte L. Jensen & Chiara Farné Fratini & Jens Dorland & Michael S. Jørgensen & Susse Georg, 2021. "Is life cycle assessment enough to address unintended side effects from Circular Economy initiatives?," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 25(5), pages 1111-1120, October.
    3. Myrto Kasioumi & Thanasis Stengos, 2023. "A Circular Model of Economic Growth and Waste Recycling," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 321-346, March.
    4. Risa Arai & Martin Calisto Friant & Walter J. V. Vermeulen, 2024. "The Japanese Circular Economy and Sound Material-Cycle Society Policies: Discourse and Policy Analysis," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 619-650, March.
    5. Millar, Neal & McLaughlin, Eoin & Börger, Tobias, 2019. "The Circular Economy: Swings and Roundabouts?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 11-19.
    6. Claudia Aparecida De Mattos & Thiago Lourenço Meira De Albuquerque, 2018. "Enabling Factors and Strategies for the Transition Toward a Circular Economy (CE)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-18, December.
    7. Jan Streeck & Quirin Dammerer & Dominik Wiedenhofer & Fridolin Krausmann, 2021. "The role of socio‐economic material stocks for natural resource use in the United States of America from 1870 to 2100," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 25(6), pages 1486-1502, December.
    8. Rachel Greer & Timo Wirth & Derk Loorbach, 2023. "The Circular Decision-Making Tree: an Operational Framework," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 693-718, June.
    9. Munten, Pauline & Swaen, Valérie & Vanhamme, Joëlle, 2024. "Exploring rebound effects in Access-Based services (ABS)," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    10. Arnold Tukker & Renzo Akkerman & Antoine Heideveld & Jaco Quist & Ruben Vrijhoef & Cees Withagen & Mark Beumer, 2024. "Distribution of Power and Value Crucial for a Successful Circular Economy Transition," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 4(4), pages 2413-2425, December.
    11. Thomas Siderius & Trevor Zink, 2023. "Markets and the Future of the Circular Economy," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 1569-1595, September.
    12. Leonidas Milios, 2021. "Towards a Circular Economy Taxation Framework: Expectations and Challenges of Implementation," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 477-498, September.
    13. J. Brusselaers & J. Gillabel, 2024. "How Circular Is the European Policy Landscape?," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 1559-1585, June.
    14. Mariana Oliveira & Mécia Miguel & Sven Kevin Langen & Amos Ncube & Amalia Zucaro & Gabriella Fiorentino & Renato Passaro & Remo Santagata & Nick Coleman & Benjamin H. Lowe & Sergio Ulgiati & Andrea Ge, 2021. "Circular Economy and the Transition to a Sustainable Society: Integrated Assessment Methods for a New Paradigm," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 99-113, June.
    15. Hans Eickhoff, 2024. "The appeal of the circular economy revisited: on track for transformative change or enabler of moral licensing?," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-8, December.
    16. Leandro Javier Llorente-González & Xavier Vence, 2019. "Decoupling or ‘Decaffing’? The Underlying Conceptualization of Circular Economy in the European Union Monitoring Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-21, September.
    17. Nancy Bocken & Lars Strupeit & Katherine Whalen & Julia Nußholz, 2019. "A Review and Evaluation of Circular Business Model Innovation Tools," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-25, April.
    18. John Ryter & Xinkai Fu & Karan Bhuwalka & Richard Roth & Elsa Olivetti, 2022. "Assessing recycling, displacement, and environmental impacts using an economics‐informed material system model," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 26(3), pages 1010-1024, June.
    19. Carlos Scheel & Bernardo Bello, 2022. "Transforming Linear Production Chains into Circular Value Extended Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-17, March.
    20. Chembessi Chedrak & Gohoungodji Paulin & Juste Rajaonson, 2023. "“A fine wine, better with age”: Circular economy historical roots and influential publications: A bibliometric analysis using Reference Publication Year Spectroscopy (RPYS)," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(6), pages 1593-1612, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:circec:v:3:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s43615-021-00097-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.