First Circular Economy Ports: Building Wide-Area Port Logistics

A circular economy is an economic system that maintains, restores, or adds value to resources and products and circulates them through measures such as extending their lifespans, reuse, and recycling. It also aims to reduce the use of natural resources and the generation of waste.

Circular Economy Ports are ports that work to form logistics-network hubs for recyclable resources and industrial clusters with advanced recycling technologies, while collaborating with diverse stakeholders to address increased flows and varieties, small-lot transport, and impacts on surrounding environments and other cargo.

The initiative will promote wide-area resource circulation by building a logistics system centered on ports. Ministry of the Environment programs plan to provide additional evaluation points for developing cargo-handling equipment and other facilities at selected ports.

The application review confirmed achievements and plans involving the handling of port cargo, the location of separate-collection and resource-recycling facilities, the transport of small-lot and diverse recyclable resources, improvements to cargo-handling environments, and transport efficiency through cooperation among ports and contributions to the circular economy.

The review found that every port met the selection requirements, and all 29 applying ports will be selected. A location map and an overview of each port are provided, with the overviews included in Appendix 1.

The Port Bureau supports the development of recyclable-resource handling support facilities for storage and warehousing of recyclable resources by port administrators and other parties. The Ministry of the Environment's Environmental Regeneration and Resource Circulation Bureau plans to support cargo-handling equipment and other facilities through its project supporting the development of recycled-material supply chains.