Plastic pollution has become a major environmental concern worldwide. As the circular economy is increasingly seen as a means for achieving sustainable development, it is imperative to promote the more efficient use of plastics worldwide. An integral part of the circular economy model, trade in waste, and the scrap for recovery is a part of the solution to achieve sustainability. This paper studies the changing geography of the international trade in plastic waste. It reveals increasingly complex patterns of the transboundary trade in plastic waste over more than two decades. The movement of plastic waste from high-income countries to developing nations has been the largest flow, but trade flows of other directions turn out to be significant. The findings of the paper debunk the North–South or core–periphery dichotomy that is embedded in the international environment justice tradition (including the ecologically unequal exchange theory) as well as in international environmental regulatory regimes such as the Basel Convention. The paper contributes to the discussions about value that are central in political economic approaches to global trade (e.g., the global value chain and global production network) by demonstrating the relative, spatial, and dynamic nature of the concept. As the transboundary trade in plastic waste has exacerbated pollution and marine litter in some major receiving countries, it needs to be better monitored and regulated to ensure it is conducted in a transparent and environmentally sound manner. The paper also explores several policy measures that could help tackle the plastic pollution crisis and achieve sustainable development.

This paper examined the relationships among firms in a rapidly growing specialized industrial cluster—the Chery automotive cluster located in the Wuhu Economic and Technology Development in eastern China. After demonstrating how the Chery automotive cluster contributed to sustainable regional economic development, it focused on defining the roles that major firms play in the localized production network. Based on three attributes of the firm (network linkages, network position, and network power), the study identified a typology of firms’ role, including the dominant core, lead firms, gatekeepers, intermediaries, club of foreigners, peripherals, and loners. By revealing the heterogeneity of the firms and discussing the differing roles they play in the network, the paper made some policy recommendations to promote the sustainable development of the cluster, including providing policy supports to core firms, encouraging inter-firm networking and interaction, and diversifying the cohort of gatekeepers.

Based on the cognitive-behavioral model of pathological internet use and the risk buffering model, the current study explored how and when the sense of security reduces problematic mobile phone use (PMPU) among Chinese freshmen. Specifically, we investigated the underlying mechanism of PMPU by testing a moderated mediation model, in which relatedness needs satisfaction moderated the mediating role of negative attention bias on the relation between sense of security and PMPU. A sample of 458 freshmen in China (76.20% females), with a mean age of 19.58 years (SD = 1.03, range = 16–23), were surveyed using the sense of security scale, the attention to negative information subscale, the relatedness needs satisfaction subscale, and the mobile phone addiction index. Mediation analysis indicated the sense of security decreased freshmen’ PMPU by reducing negative attention bias. Moderated mediation analysis further demonstrated that high relatedness needs satisfaction ameliorated the adverse impact of negative attention bias on PMPU among freshmen, while low relatedness needs satisfaction sharpened the adverse impact of negative attention bias on PMPU among freshmen. This study highlights the mediating and moderating mechanisms linking the sense of security to PMPU. More importantly, it has prominent implications for the prevention and intervention of PMPU among freshmen.