スマホ・携帯電話やPCなどのe-wasteの発生とリサイクルの現状を統計的に把握し, 国際的な比較を行い, リサイクルに関する経済的インパクトと環境負荷のシミュレーション計算を行った。Hitoshi Hayami and Masao Nakamura, "An economic assessment of present and future e-waste streams : Japan's experience," Chapter 10 in E-waste Recycling and Management : Present Scenario and Environmental Issues, edited by : Anish Khan, Inamuddin and Abdullah M. Asiri, 2018 (予定)として公刊。および, 太陽光発電の地域経済に与える効果についての統計的分析 Hitoshi Hayami and Masao Nakamura, "The Economic Impacts of Renewal Energy on Local Economies : The Case of Solar Energy in Japan." Journal of Technology Innovations in Renewable Energy, vol. 6, no. 1, 2017, pp. 7-17を発表している。
E-wasteの回収実績は近年横ばいであるが, 国内の出荷数が減少傾向にあるため, 回収率は上昇している。回収数をあげるために, 法的な枠組み以外にキャンペーンを実行している。最近では東京オリンピックのメダルを回収貴金属で行うキャンペーンがある。しかしe-wasteの処理にも産業廃棄物の発生がある。鉄鋼や非鉄金属産業に再投入される場合は中間処理で最終処分量は少なくなるが, 印刷などのプロセスに誘発する廃棄物は処理による減少効果が小さいという特徴がある。このほかに輸出されるものについては, 途上国の熔解処理の際の大気・廃水に含まれる鉛など重金属やその他の化学物質の汚染を招くことが報告されているが日本からのe-waste輸出による詳細な全体像についてはわかっていない。
Various alternative renewable energy sources have been proposed and implemented. These energy sources, which generally do not rely on fossil fuel, are distinguished from the traditional large scale energy projects in a number of ways. On the other hand, the circumstances surrounding renewable energy sources currently under use are characterized by their small size and scale and their economic impacts are generally local. For example, wind mills based electric power generation uses locally available wind currents and geothermal power generation uses locally available geothermal heat sources. Similarly, solar power generation uses solar power available in the local regions. These imply that the economic impacts of most renewable energy sources currently in use are local.
We estimate our model using cross-sectional data of regional economies measured at the prefecture level in Japan. This will allow us to estimate the impacts of certain government policy variables at the regional level as well. One hypothesis we consider in this paper is that while solar power is still negligible in terms of its impact on Japan's national economy, it has some economic impacts on the economies of the regions where they are located.
We consider issues associated with e-waste in terms of recycling, legal issues, supply chain issues. In our empirical analysis we focus on the relationship between the generation of e-waste and the national economy of Japan, among other topics.