As a new concept, a new economic thought, it is not easy for circular economy to become something at the institutional level in a short period of time.First, people have become accustomed to the traditionalEconomic growth mode, management mode and the resultingvaluesAnd the way of thinking.In a society, the more traditional and backward things are, the more difficult it is for new things to emerge and grow.Second, the emergence of any new thing needs not only the promotion of the system level, but also the cooperation of cultural publicity, education and training, or the goal will be difficult to achieve.
Anyway, it is important to promote new things at the institutional level.Looking at the situation abroad, most countries that develop or implement circular economy have relatively complete legislation on circular economy in general.It has become a common practice of all countries to ensure the realization of circular economy by means of legislation.
Circular economy legislation, from a global perspective, is only a matter of the past decade.It is marked by the promulgation of the German Circular Economy and Waste Disposal Law (September 27, 1994).Previously, although Germany, Japan, the United States and the European Community had some legislation that seemed to reflect the idea of circular economy, such as the Waste Disposal Act of Germany in 1972, the Waste Disposal Act of Japan in 1970, the Resource Protection and Recycling Act of the United States in 1976, and the Waste Directive of the European Community in 1975,However, this does not mean that these countries began to legislate on circular economy in the 1970s.At that time, people's understanding of economic development had not yet risen to the height of developing circular economy, so it was impossible to have the concept of circular economy legislation.As for the emergence of the above legislation, it is mainly to regulate people's behavior in disposing of waste, avoid secondary pollution and recycle useful waste materials.At that time, legislators had no clear idea of circular economy legislation subjectively.At best, we can only say that these legislations objectively coincide with the meaning of what we call circular economy legislation today, and initially reflect the legislative requirements for ensuring and developing circular economy.
If there is no clear concept of circular economy legislation in the 1970s, then the situation has changed significantly in the early 1990s.In 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development launched the report "Our Common Future", which clearly put forward the theory of sustainable development, giving mankind a new understanding of the concept of "development".Humans have realized that the economic development of mankind before is unsustainable.Because it is a single linear economic process from resources to products to waste discharge and pollutant discharge.This kind of development is based on a large consumption of natural resources.It will not only lead to resource shortage crisis, but also make environmental problems more serious.Therefore, in June 1992, the United Nations held the Global Summit on "Environment and Development" in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to discuss the development of human economy and society.The meeting clearly required all governments to change the traditional development model of pursuing economic growth, ignoring ecological environment protection, ignoring the effective use and economical use of natural resources, advocating that economic development must follow the laws of ecology, rationally use natural resources and environmental capacity, make materials recycled, and realize the ecological transformation of economic activities.So far, the idea of developing circular economy has become clear.
With the gradual clarification of the idea of developing circular economy, the issue of circular economy legislation was naturally raised, which led to the introduction of Germany's "Circular Economy and Waste Disposal Law" and Japan's "Basic Law on the Establishment of a Circular Society".
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China's circular economy legislation should focus on the following issues:
（1） Accurately grasp the scientific connotation of "circular economy"
Circular economy, also known as "resource circular economy", as a new concept of economic development, emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Its history is very short, so there is no universally recognized definition.Technically speaking, circular economy is a closed-loop material flow mode of "resource consumption → product → renewable resources" corresponding to the open material flow mode of "resource consumption → product → waste discharge" of traditional economic activities.Its technical characteristics are the reduction, reuse and rebirth of resource consumption.In terms of the way of economic operation, circular economy is an economic model that operates in the way of natural ecological material circulation. It requires ecological laws to guide the economic activities of human society.Its basic characteristics are resource conservation and resource recycling.From the perspective of epistemology and development view, circular economy is a new idea of economic development put forward by people based on a new understanding of the relationship between human beings and nature.Its purpose is to establish a scientific economic ecosystem.
From the above different perspectives on the concept of circular economy, the so-called circular economy refers to the economic development model with the basic characteristics of reducing resource consumption, saving resources, improving the utilization rate of resources and resource recycling rate, and the goal of realizing the repeated circulation of materials.Its essential requirement is that, on the premise that the total amount of social products does not decrease, the input of resources and energy should be reduced accordingly, forcing people to reuse waste as resources, realizing the material and energy cycle in the process of product production and consumption, and making the most effective use of resources;Its core content is to emphasize the reuse and recycling of resources, extend the service life of products as far as possible, improve the reuse rate of products, strengthen the recycling of waste, and give full play to the intrinsic value of resources;Its basic goal is to keep the social reproduction process in harmony with the natural reproduction process, and maintain the ability of natural resource regeneration and development;Its ultimate goal is to create a new and advanced economic form, pursue the maximization of the living welfare of all social members, and pursue the sustainable development of economy and society.
Relevant experts believe that the circular economy, as a new mode of economic development and a new mode of production, is an important means to realize the sustainable development strategy and a fundamental solution to environmental problems when mankind is facing serious environmental problems today.Because of this, the industrial developed countries represented by Japan and Germany began to carry out relevant legislation to promote the development of circular economy in the 1990s, so as to promote the development of circular economy by providing legal system guarantees.
（2） Reform and update the legislative concept
Circular economy is essentially an ecological economy.The fundamental difference between the operation of ecological economy and that of traditional economy lies in that the whole production process of society is no longer just the production process of material materials, but the production process that interweaves and unifies with the ecological production process.It requires the whole economic activity to run in the direction of organic combination and coordinated development of material qualification material production and ecological environment production, and requires the development of economy on the premise of considering the guarantee ability of natural resources for human material production.
At present, we should mainly carry out the following conceptual changes and updates:
1. From "end treatment" to pollution-free and waste free discharge
China's traditional environmental protection legislation clearly reflects the idea of pollution end treatment, final waste treatment and disposal.Under the control of this concept, our design of some environmental legal systems or measures is based on "post-processing", such as "three simultaneous system", "deadline governance system" and so on.This obviously does not meet the requirements of the development of circular economy.Circular economy emphasizes the material cycle and energy cycle in the process of product production and consumption.According to this requirement, in the production and consumption process of products, there should be basically no pollutant discharge and waste generation, so there is no post-processing problem of "products attached" to production and consumption activities.Therefore, in terms of the concept or idea of circular economy legislation, we should realize the transformation from the end treatment or treatment of pollutant discharge and waste discharge to non pollution and non waste discharge.
2. From "things for my own use" to "make the best use of everything"
For a long time, there has been a misunderstanding in human understanding of natural resources, that is, natural resources are inexhaustible.It is precisely because of this misguided understanding that human beings have always adhered to the traditional concept of "things for my own use" when dealing with nature and natural resources.This concept has led humans to incorrectly choose the mode of economic development, that is, to completely base economic growth on the development and utilization of natural resources, which has led to today's bad results: on the one hand, natural resources are wasted in large quantities, on the other hand, natural resources are rapidly reduced or exhausted, and "resource crisis" follows.
The purpose of circular economy is to change the mode of human economic development, guide people to treat nature and natural resources with a cherishing attitude, completely change the past concept of "inexhaustible" natural resources, and establish the idea of "making the best use of everything".In view of this, the legislation of circular economy must also unconditionally change the concept of "things for my use" to "make the best use of everything".Legislation should guide people to establish the concept of "no waste, only misplaced resources", and ensure the most effective and rational use of natural resources.
3. From "priceless resources" to "valuable resources"
Traditional economic theory believes that things without labor participation have no value, and things without transaction in the market economy have no value.Natural resources are not the product of human labor, and no human labor condenses into them, so they are valueless, and valueless things will not be treasured and loved.It is under the guidance of this theory that in the past, countries generally chose the extensive production mode of high input, high energy consumption, high pollution and low output.This mode of production has not only destroyed natural resources, but also caused waste.
Admittedly, according to the Marxist value theory, natural resources, as a gift from heaven, have no value.However, natural resources, as the source of human means of life and production, the premise and basis of human socio-economic activities, and the natural boundary of socio-economic development, have special use value and material utility attributes.Human production activities can only obey and use the inherent attributes and kinetic energy of natural resources and natural conditions.In fact, human labor is just to make the use value and material utility of natural resources more concentrated, more prominent and more perfect by processing and transforming natural resources on the premise of following the laws of nature and ecology.Without the special use value and material utility function contained in natural resources and natural conditions, nothing can be created only by human labor.Moreover, natural resources, as a gift from heaven, are very small in quantity, which is by no means "inexhaustible".In addition, changes in the quantity and quality of each natural resource will affect the balance of the entire ecosystem.It is in this sense that natural resources are valuable.What is valuable should have a price.In this way, people will cherish it and cherish it.
The key point of circular economy legislation is to establish the concept of "resources are valuable", force people to respect nature, make the most reasonable and effective use of natural resources, and enable natural resources to serve mankind in a sustainable way through scientific system design.In order to achieve this goal, we must make resources valuable.
4. From blind high consumption to "green consumption"
The emergence of industrial civilization and the increase of social material wealth have brought the possibility of pursuing material enjoyment to mankind, and also caused sharp contradictions between man and nature.Because human material enjoyment is based on the plundering and possession of natural resources.In order to enjoy and spend more, we must take from nature.Thus, the poaching of Tibetan antelopes and the illegal cutting of precious trees appeared.In addition to the misleading of "consumption is the driving force of economic growth", the abnormal high consumption of human beings in recent decades objectively led to the excessive demand of human activities for natural resources, which led to the intensification of resource crisis.Another negative result of high consumption is that people often do not consider the recycling and utilization of waste in the process of constantly improving consumption requirements and consumption levels, thus causing environmental pollution of waste and waste of resources.Therefore, one thing that cannot be ignored in the legislation of developing circular economy is to change people's consumption concept and guide people to learn "green consumption".
The so-called "green consumption", in the final analysis, is to guide consumers to advocate nature, pursue health and pay attention to resource conservation;When consuming, products produced with renewable resources or recyclable products without pollution or less pollution, without waste discharge or less waste discharge should be selected, and attention should be paid to the treatment and disposal of products after use, so as not to pollute the environment.
Green consumption is the best consumption mode in line with the idea of circular economy development.It has three basic meanings: first, choose the product with the least resource consumption because resources are limited;Second, choose recyclable and recyclable products, because it can save resources;Third, choose products that discharge the least waste and are environmentally friendly, because they are environmentally friendly.
Cultivating people's good consumption concept is an indispensable part of the development of circular economy.
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The Circular Economy Promotion Law of the People's Republic of China came into force on January 1, 2009.What is circular economy? The Law of the People's Republic of China on the Promotion of Circular Economy gives a definition: the so-called circular economy refers to the general term of the reduction, reuse, and resource-based activities in the process of production, circulation, and consumption.
The term "reduction" refers to the reduction of resource consumption and waste generation in the process of production, circulation and consumption.
The term "reuse" refers to the direct use of waste as a product or the continued use of waste as a product after repair, renovation or remanufacturing, or the use of waste in whole or in part as parts of other products.
The term "recycling" refers to the direct utilization of wastes as raw materials or the recycling of wastes.
The Circular Economy Promotion Law is not enough to promote the circular economy. There is still much work to be done to implement this law. The most important thing is to make the circular economy into a basic principle that all participants must follow in economic life. More detailed regulations, norms, standards, etc. are also needed.This is an urgent task at present.Advanced developed countries have many lessons and experiences. After years of exploration, they have formed a complete legal system of circular economy.Taking Japan as an example, the circular economy law includes the Container Packaging Recycling Law, the Household Appliances Recycling Law, the Basic Law on Promoting the Formation of a Recycling Society, the Law on Promoting the Effective Use of Resources, the Law on Building Materials Recycling, the Food Recycling Law, the Waste Disposal Law, and the Green Consumption Law,These laws are hard constraints in Japan's real economic life, ensuring that Japan develops the "vein industry" while developing the "artery industry", achieving the simultaneous development of the "artery industry" and the "vein industry", stepping into a more environmentally friendly circular economy, and stepping into a benign track, which is worth learning from.We have also noticed that the relevant departments of our country have organized personnel to study environmental protection and waste disposal in Japan, and have made some achievements, but there is still a big gap in China's legislation. In terms of waste disposal, the principle of circular economy is followed,However, the research on the recycling of plastic in daily life garbage and the treatment following the principle of circular economy is still relatively weak, which has a lot to do with the misleading of some human incineration technologies. The incineration technology seems to be able to solve the problem of mountains of garbage, but it ignores the problems of air pollution and the production of toxic fly ash, and also seriously deviates from the direction of circular economy.
