DETERMINANTS OF WASTE IMPORT IN TURKEY WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY: ANALYSIS OF THE GRAVITY MODEL

Abstract

The increasing trend in production and consumption rates, as well as the effects of industrialization and globalization, all contribute to an increase in the amount of wastes generated. The idea that the growing amount of waste, which has harmful effects on the environment and health, should be channeled into opportunities that will generate economic benefits has gained interest in recent years. As a result, the circular economy's take-make-remake perspective has begun to take the place of the linear economy's take-make-dispose perspective. It is assumed that wastes can be a potential secondary raw material, can be converted into energy, and can provide economic benefits through trade in used goods. These benefits can all be found within the framework of the circular economy, in which waste reduction, recycling, and reuse strategies are adopted. Because of national policies by itself won't be enough to maintain the sustainability of circular economy strategies on a global scale, waste trade between countries is essential. In this context, it is aimed to direct wastes to countries with comparative advantage in terms of classification and processing processes, and thus to provide economic gains on a global scale, with waste trade between countries. Based on the gravity model, the study aims to identify the variables influencing Turkey's import of waste, which is significant in the global import of waste. Using annual data for the period 2006 to 2020, the Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood (PPML) method was used to examine the factors influencing Turkey's imports of waste from 63 trading partners. As a result of the analysis, it has been determined that the growth in the population and income level of the exporting country has an increasing impact on Turkey's imports of waste. The analysis also showed that Turkey's waste imports are constrained by the landlocked countries of the waste exporter countries as well as the improvements in the environmental performance and corruption control of the waste exporter country.