Lorenzo DelValle

MAE 1503
5/3/16
Project 7: International Markets
When looking at what countries a water cleaning tool would be most important for, it
would be important to first look at which countries have the biggest issues with waste water.
When first brainstorming this project, being a fairly big car fanatic, Asian countries that produce
cars were definitely the first ones that came to mind. Although there are countries that most
likely have bigger issues with waste water overall, the Asian countries tend to produce way more
industrialized items than many others. Narrowing it down, China and Japan were the first ones
that came to mind as a good fit for this project. Additionally, when brainstorming, I thought that
India might be a good substitute for Japan, but their issue with waste water is way broader than
just with industrial plants. The issues that lay within India are centered more towards the lack of
funding for cleanliness and the fact that people are much poorer in India and rely on the natural
sources of water to dump waste of their own. Again on the topic of India, there might not be as
strong of a market for these items, because of the lack of government funding for additional
expenditures. According to The World Banks data for each countrys GDP economically, India
had an extremely low GPD per capita of $1,581.5 for the year range of 2011-2015 (GDP per
Capita (current US$).). Although this does not directly reflect the amount of money the
government has to spend on things like a source to clean up sources of water, it is a good
indicator, due to the low amount of income tax that the people of India have to give to the
government.

When it came down to settling with two countries that would be a good fit for this
industrialized water cleaning widget, some might concur that China and Japan would be a good
fit. Because there were 481,880.9 million dollars spent on import goods from China during the
year of 2015 (Foreign Trade.), it would be safe to say that there are a lot of factories that put
out a good amount of waste. The amount of goods that are imported to the United States is a
crazy large amount. It has even been stated by some politicians and government officials that
there are more things imported from China that one would find on a daily basis than things that
one would find produced within the United States itself. With this information at hand, it led to
further research on the amount of waste water that China produces on an annual basis, and the
following information was gathered. According to the China Water Risk article, Chinas
wastewater pipe network can circle the earth ten times over. If that isnt enough supporting
evidence that they have an issue with the amount of waste that they produce, than I am not sure
what is. Additionally, the total waste water has increased by 65% between the years 2000 and
2012, according to the China Water Risk article (Hu, Feng). It is apparent that the waste issue
that China has is something that is not decreasing by any means, and should be dealt with
accordingly.
Japan, one of the countries with the highest amount of vehicles exported vehicles to the
United States all together, must have a large amount of waste produced from its factories.
According to Asia Matters for America, Japanese cars account for nearly 19% of all United
States automobile exports. Additionally, in the year 2012, there were 336,000 cars and trucks
produced by Japanese car manufactures imported in the United States (Clegg, Grace Ruch). That
is a number that must have some effect over-seas in Japan. Despite the fact that Japan has a
significantly better source of waste management compared to China, they still rank fairly high

when it comes to the amount of industrial waste produced annually. The car industry is just one
of the many sources that greatly impacts the numbers in this field. The Japan Industrial Waste
Information Center states that the country has had an organization just for industrial waste as of
November 30, 1988. When cross referencing this date to the date that Japan first started
importing cars to the United States, it would be clear that this was around the same time. As
Japanese automotive corporations continue to shovel out hundreds of thousands of vehicles to
the United States each year, more and more waste is being produced. Additionally, because the
country already has standards set for cleaning up the mess that they are creating, it may seem that
they would not see a widget for cleaning up messes fitting. That is where some differences could
be set aside. Because the GDP per capita in Japan is roughly $36,000 per year ("GDP per Capita
(current US$)."), the government would have a lot more money to be able to set aside for a
project such as a waste management widget. Even at a low amount of income taxes, Japan would
be able to pull in around the same amount of money that the United States does. That being said,
there should be a significant amount of that money that could be used.
Out of all of the countries in the world, China and Japan are just two of the many that an
industrial waste management widget could be implemented in. Both of these countries have a
large industrial foundation, whether that be for miscellaneous objects, like China, or a strong
influence in the automotive industry, such as Japan. Both of these countries, in addition, have a
decent enough GDP per capita that would allow for an influx of tax dollars to be spend on
outside projects to clean up the countries and make for an environmentally safer place. Japan and
China should have no issues implementing a waste management widget in their countries in the
near future.

Works Cited
Clegg, Grace Ruch. "Made in America: Japanese Automakers Export Record Number of Vehicles
from US." Asia Matters for America. East-West Center, 27 Mar. 2014. Web. 1 May 2016.

"Foreign Trade." - U.S. Trade with China. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2016.

"GDP per Capita (current US$)." GDP per Capita (current US$). N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2016.

Hu, Feng. "8 Facts on Chinas Wastewater | China Water Risk." China Water Risk. N.p., 12 Mar.
2014. Web. 03 May 2016.