HALADA’s Metal Resources Seminar “From urban mined medals to circular economy”, November 17, 2021
Khomei Halada, President of the Circular Economy & Global Multi-Value Circulation Study Group and promoter of the elements strategies for urban mining and rare metals, who has been involved in Total Material Requirement and Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) for several decades, will discuss and respond to the current status of metal resources and their circulation and resource efficiency.
The first half-day seminar was held on 26 July 2012 on “Recent Trends in Resources and Circulation” and seminars were planned to be held three times a year with different content. The second, on 17 November 2012, was on “From Urban Mining Medals to Circular Economy”.
At the end of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo 2020, the winners were awarded the first Olympic medals made from gold, silver and copper collected through recycling by everyone. This urban mined medal, which President Bach described as a valuable initiative towards a sustainable society, is expected to be passed on as a legacy for future generations. In this seminar, we will first summarize the current status and initiatives of urban mining development in Japan, which made this Urban Mined Medal possible.
It was nearly 15 years ago when the speaker announced that Japan’s urban mine reserves were on a scale comparable to that of the world’s top resource-rich countries. Since then, while the Small Home Appliance Recycling Law has been enforced, there has been a sharp rise in resource prices and a prolonged stagnation of the Japanese economy.
In addition, the Tokyo 2020 Urban Mined Medal initiative has brought a form of citizens’ movement. to resource recycling. In the context of the current citizens’ movement for the recycling of plastics, it is important to summarise the achievements of this medal in terms of initiatives.
The world is also moving towards an economic revitalisation based on sustainable material circulation in the form of a circular economy. Having set a world-leading example with our urban mined medal, we should be in a position to lead the way in the circular economy. In fact, our efforts in the 1990s and early 2000s to move towards a circular economy have yielded many results. But the world is looking further ahead. In the second half of the seminar, the first part of the Circular Economy, I would like to make clear the differences between the Japanese Circular Society and the Circular Economy of the rest of the world. And in this context, I would like to shed light on how the resource sorting industry, known as the “recycling industry”, which has supported the circular society, is required to change, and whether it can continue to be a so-called “venous industry”, and its future in the supply chain.
Based on this, we will then move on to the third seminar “Resource Efficiency and the Circular Economy” to find out what the resource problem was and what the key to the circular economy was.
[Date & Time] November 17, 2021; 14:00 ~ 18:00 [Format] Online seminar using ZOOM (Viewing recordings on Youtube is also possible) [Registration] Sign up for a peatix ticket and you will receive access information for ZOOM and Youtube.Registration 30,000 yen (but free for members of CE&MVC research group)
Contact: Sustainability Design Institute office@susdi.org TEL & FAX 029-846-5505
[Programme]14:00 〜 15:00 ”Current status of urban mines in Japan and the achievement of 2020Tokyo Urban Mined Medal”
a) Significance of the Urban Mined Medal
b) The achievement and future of the Urban Mined Medal as a citizens’ movement
c) Current status of urban mines in Japan
d) Major weaknesses in the future of urban mining development
15:00 〜 15:20 Questions on urban mines
15:20 〜 15:30 Break-out table
We will take a break in small groups. Please use this for a casual exchange of ideas.
15:30 〜 16:30 “The position of the resource sorting industry towards a circular economy”
a) The “material cycle” towards 2050
b) Major differences between the circular economy and the Japanese “recycling society
c) The concept of the circulation of plastics and worrying trends
d) How can industries that turn things survive in the “shift from things to things”?
16:30 〜 17:00 General discussion
17:00 〜 After school talk (several breakout rooms will be available)