APPLICATION OF THE BLUE ECONOMY

 

Cristina Vilaplana-Prieto

Prof. Dr., University of Murcia, SPAIN, cvilaplana@um.es

 

Abstract

This teaching experience is designed to be implemented in the subject "Principles of Economics" of the Degree in Political Science, Government and Public Administration, but it can be used in any subject of "Introduction to Economics" of Degrees in Economics, Business Administration, Marketing or Sociology. I have been teaching this subject for more than 10 years and according to my experience students are always more willing to make economic, social or environmental policy proposals, but they are more reluctant to look for and interpret data. As I have noticed their interest in environmental issues and in all policies aimed at reducing pollution, I thought they would find this experience attractive and instructive at the same time.

Education about and for sustainability is one way of addressing sustainability issues among students. In recent decades, numerous initiatives have been taken to design and incorporate Education for Sustainable Development. Students need to develop these skills to help them make thoughtful decisions in societal debates on sustainable issues.

This study investigates students' reasoning about the life cycle of (bio)plastics. The aim is to find out students' perceptions of the sustainability of (bio)plastics by revealing their arguments and the type of scientific knowledge they use. The topic of (bio)plastics has been chosen because (1) students encounter (bio)plastics in everyday life, (2) waste management of (bio)plastics is a well-known topic in society. Three research questions are addressed:

1.  What knowledge, scientific and otherwise, do students use to reason about the sustainability of(bio)plastics?

2.  What components are present in the students' reasoning, i.e. what assertions, endorsements, refutations and qualifiers can be identified?

3.  To what extent does the activity designed for the students make them aware of the complexity and multidimensionality of the sustainability issue?

This teaching project connects to what is now known as the Blue Economy. The Blue Economy goes beyond the globalised economy and the Green Economy. The time has come to shift to a competitive business model that meets everyone's basic needs with what is available locally. The power of the Blue Economy is that it injects money back into the local economy and, contrary to traditional belief, offers high quality products at a lower price. Rather, the Blue Economy inspires young and entrepreneurial minds and offers a broad platform of innovative ideas that have been implemented somewhere in the world to show that the future is bright, as long as we go beyond the known and the obvious.

The phases of the project are as follows:

This educational project is connected to what is now known as the Blue Economy (Pauli, 2020). The Blue Economy goes beyond the globalised economy and the Green Economy. The time has come to shift to a competitive business model that meets everyone's basic needs with what is available locally. The power of the Blue Economy is that it injects money back into the local economy and, contrary to traditional belief, offers high quality products at a lower price. Rather, the Blue Economy inspires young and entrepreneurial minds and offers a broad platform of innovative ideas that have been implemented somewhere in the world to show that the future is bright, as long as we go beyond the known and the obvious.

The phases of the project are as follows:

Phase 1: Introduction to the topic of bioplastics. Students will watch an introductory video about a recycling company and answer a series of questions about the production, use and recycling of (bio)plastics. Individual reading of 2 national/international news articles and elaboration of a summary of the articles with guiding questions. A confrontation with the conflicting aspects related to plastics of biological and fossil origin and recycling takes place. In a group discussion, the students exchange the information read in the articles and revise the initial position.

Phases 2 and 3 are then carried out in teams of 5 or 6 students formed on a voluntary basis among themselves. Each team provides an Excel file in which they have saved all the data and a Word file in which they comment on the results of each step.

Phase 2: Analysis of the bioplastics market and its relationship with other markets. In this stage the knowledge acquired about market demand and supply, taxes, subsidies, price elasticity of demand, income elasticity of demand and cross-price elasticity of demand will be put into practice.

•    Changes in markets for substitute goods for bioplastics: (i) effect of rising oil prices; (iii) increase in the price of raw materials used to produce bioplastics (e.g. corn starch, sugar cane).

•    Changes in the regulatory framework: (i) taxes on goods made from fossil fuels; (ii) bans on the use of "fossil" plastics; (iii) research subsidies for the discovery of new processes to produce bioplastics.

•    Technological variables: (i) economies of scale; (ii) learning curves.

•    Social factors: (i) awareness; (ii) economic growth.

Phase 3: Analysis of the willingness to pay for bioplastics:

•    The five attributes to be considered are: (1) origin of raw materials, (2) eco-certification, (3) proportion of CO2 captured, (4) fraction of bio-based plastic contained, (5) price of bioplastic bottles.

•    The aim of this analysis is to approach the concept of consumer surplus. Consumer surplus measures the difference between the willingness to pay for a good and what is actually paid for it. Therefore, the price of the different bioplastics will be taken as a reference and compared with the willingness to pay of the students.

•    To do this, each group should conduct a short survey among their peers and then calculate the average price and the standard deviation.

This study indicates that students are able to provide relevant scientific knowledge when confronted with an appropriate SIA context. However, there is still a need to create education that fosters students' content knowledge when conducting life cycle assessment. Well-documented examples, as well as a better understanding of the effectiveness of didactic approaches to conducting life cycle assessment in economics education, are crucial for improving Education for Sustainable Development in 21st century classrooms and making society more sustainable.

Keywords: bioplastics, economics, blue economy, willingness to pay