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Since the early 1980s, OECD has been developing and promulgating international policies aimed at preventing and reducing waste generation and managing the residues in an environmentally sound manner. It has, however, become evident that waste minimisation policies which address only end-of-life products and materials are not effective in reducing increasing amounts of waste associated with economic activity and material consumption. This accentuates the need for creative and far-sighted and integrated solutions, using life-cycle thinking to reduce the negative environmental impacts of materials in a cost-effective manner.
The OECD Environmental Strategy, adopted by Environment Ministers in May 2001, clearly outlines the need for governments to look for integrated solutions such as SMM, to address current environmental concerns.
Against this background OECD initiated in 2004 new work on Sustainable Materials Management (SMM). OECD countries are demonstrating a growing interest in considering wastes as potential resources that can be used as inputs for new products. Such use of wastes can result in less virgin material extraction with related reduction of negative environmental impacts, less disposal and often less processing of waste. In this context, a number of OECD countries are trying to move away from a heavily waste-oriented view and develop materials-based approaches and shift the “cradle-to-grave” thinking towards “cradle-to-cradle” thinking.
As a starting point for this work, a first OECD workshop on SMM was held in November 2005 in Seoul, Korea, to take stock of existing understandings on and approaches towards SMM, explore the potential elements of SMM and provide guidance for OECD's future work in this area. The workshop outcome provided, among others, the following working definition for SMM:
“Sustainable Materials Management is an approach to promote sustainable materials use, integrating actions targeted at reducing negative environmental impacts and preserving natural capital throughout the life-cycle of materials, taking into account economic efficiency and social equity.”
A second workshop was held in April 2008, Tel-Aviv, Israel, focusing on the contributions by the private sector to SMM, but also by NGOs and international organisations. The workshop report provides a summary of discussions.
More specifically, the workshop:
Currently the SMM work is focusing on policies and instruments that would be useful for promoting SMM, and for contributing to implementation of the (2008) OECD Council Recommendation on Resource Productivity [C(2008)40]. It would do so by developing 3 thematic reports:
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An overview of the potential advantages and disadvantages of using a target-based approach to SMM policy;
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Elaboration of a set of general policy principles that would facilitate SMM; and
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An overview of existing SMM instruments, and an assessment of which public policy instruments are likely to work best in which particular circumstances.
In addition, four case studies on priority materials are underway (i.e. on aluminium, critical metals, wood fibres and plastics). The case studies would build on existing data about material flows in the selected areas. They would include discussion of the environmental impacts (both macro and micro) of the such priority materials over the full life-cycle; effects on natural capital; costs and benefits of SMM; consumer and producer interests; international and cross-sectoral dimensions; effects on the competitiveness of firms in the related industries; as a well as the social implications of SMM. The goal of the case studies would be to explore policy opportunities and barriers for SMM, as a way of demonstrating the utility of the SMM concept for policy-making.
The studies described above will feed into an OECD Global Forum on Environment focusing on SMM, scheduled for 25-27 October 2010, Mechelen, Belgium, and hosted by the Belgian Government. The main focus would be on “policies for implementing SMM” (in priority sectors, materials or products). The results of the policy-oriented reports, as well as the results of the case studies, would be discussed, along with new examples of “innovative SMM practices” from the private sector (particularly those involving “systems” innovations). Efforts would also be made to link the discussions to implementation of the OECD Council Recommendation on Resource Productivity [C(2008)40] and the 2008 G8 Kobe 3R Action Plan (http://www.env.go.jp/en/focus/attach/080610-a5.pdf).
The work on SMM is carried out in close collaboration with the OECD programme on material flows and resource productivity that includes the establishment of a common knowledge base to enable sound fact-based Material Flow Analysis (MFA) and to inform related policy discussions, such as SMM. To learn more about OECD work on MFA, please visit the following websites: www.oecd.org/environment/resourceefficiency.
The work on SMM is also closely linked to an OECD project on Eco-innovation and Sustainable Manufacturing. Innovation in technologies and how it is applied are key to enabling industry to create new business values while also benefiting people and the planet. In recent years, manufacturing companies have been re-directing their efforts towards sustainable manufacturing to integrate approaches that take into account the product’s life-cycle impacts (www.oecd.org/sti/innovation/sustainablemanufacturing).
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