When recently quizzed about what the U.K. intends to do in light of the new restrictions, Environment Secretary Michael Gove was tongue-tied. They were really desperate.”. With an enormous and inexpensive labor force to tap into, it was cheaper in China to recycle scrap metals, as well as waste paper and plastic, than to make those materials from scratch. For decades, other countries shipped containers full of scrap and waste to China for recycling. It is a challenge to recycle, thanks to the variety of additives and blends used to manufacture what the studyâs authors describe as a âmultitude of products.â Only nine percent of the plastic produced globally is recycled. âIt just takes time. "The new restrictions, just like the old restrictions, are poorly considered measures that will worsen the global environment and China's competitiveness," said Adam Minter, author of "Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion Dollar Trash Trade.". The U.S. exported 16 million tons of waste to China that year, worth about $5.2 billion. Failure to create effective domestic recycling programs only enhances motivation to use less plastic overall. Arnaud Brunet, head of the Bureau of International Recycling, compared the ban to an “earthquake.”. Minter gave the example of electric motors, particularly those found in large machinery. That means they have to buy new paper pulp and plastic resins, increasing the environmental toll of their operations, according to Minter. “The problem is, it’s really hard to crack open the steel case. All rights reserved. The move has been characterized as sudden by some media, but China has in fact been signaling its desire to ditch its “world’s recycler” reputation for quite some time. The restrictions have also caused environmental problems in inside China by depriving manufacturers of recycled materials they need to meet demand. The film triggered a surge of public anger in China — and observers say the film, though scrubbed from the Chinese internet soon after its original release in 2014, may have played a part in forcing Beijing to rethink its role in the global waste industry. For more than 25 years, rich countries shipped their plastic trash to poorer Asian countries, many of them developing nations lacking the capacity to manage such waste. In the 1990s, as China moved to become the worldâs leading manufacturer, it began buying recycled plastics from the United States, Europe, Japan, and other nations. Learn what you can do to reduce your own single-use plastics, and take your pledge. To gain a glimpse of how Chinaâs change of policy impacts the world, consider this: Since 1992, China has imported 106 million metric tons of plastic waste, or 45 percent of all plastic waste. Chinaâs withdrawal as the worldâs repository for plastic waste also laid bare the notion that all that disposable plastic you conscientiously put into your taxpayer-financed recycling bin was actually being recycled. They’d figured out how to leverage the labor and they had a market for it. All rights reserved. )
“If we really want to deal with the waste problem we’re facing, we need to think deeper about the nature of consumption itself,” Minter said.
Reducing single-use plastic products are especially key. Single-use plastic packaging, like plastic bags, containers, straws and cutlery, is the “biggest source of trash” found in or near water bodies worldwide, according to Mallos.
Start bringing your own reusable bag to the supermarket and a reusable bottle for your water; refuse a straw when you order a beverage and leave a set of reusable cutlery at your desk at work.
Click here to learn more tips and tricks on how you can give up single-use plastics., at least half of the world’s exports of waste plastic, paper and metals, banning the imports of 24 categories of solid waste, a major upset of the flow of global recyclables, 95 percent of its plastic waste to China in 2016, stockpiling thousands of tons of plastics and paper, relied on exporting plastic recycling to China for 20 years, almost 50 percent of that has been going to China, restricting the imports of certain categories of solid waste, more than 100 tons of radioactive metal from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, exported to less-developed, less well-regulated waste industries, eliminate all avoidable plastic waste within 25 years, one-third of all plastic waste polluting the world’s seas. Britain sent China enough garbage to fill up 10,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. An estimated 1.3-to-3.5 million metric tons enters the oceans from Chinaâs coastline. Most stock quote data provided by BATS. China’s decision, he said, had caused “a major upset of the flow of global recyclables.”. Some of this imported waste also proved hazardous, like the time in 1996 when Chinese recycling factories accidentally imported more than 100 tons of radioactive metal from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. “This would then turn the problem into a toxic pollution issue,” said Hernandez of Break Free From Plastic. China No Longer Wants Your Trash. For decades, shipping containers have been loaded with American scrap and waste and dispatched to China for recycling. Then at the start of this year, it refused to take more, citing local environmental concerns. The United States is the leading exporter of PVC (polyvinyl chloride). But last July, China made a bold announcement, notifying the WTO that out of concern for the environment and public health, it would be restricting the imports of certain categories of solid waste. “China recognizes that the problem has reached a tipping point,” said Richard Brubaker, an environmental activist and founder of Collective Responsibility, a Shanghai-based sustainability consultancy. “A lot of [recycling organizations] are now sitting back and seeing what comes out of the woodwork, but people are very worried,” Ellin said. The plastic waste import ban could spell bad news for the environment. But much of that waste was low quality and added to Chinaâs mounting health and environmental problems. In 2016, China processed at least half of the world’s exports of waste plastic, paper and metals. Beijing said that, beginning in 2018, it would be banning the imports of 24 categories of solid waste, including waste plastics, unsorted scrap paper and waste textiles. All rights reserved, Plastic waste imports, millions of metric tons, 2016. But exporters could take easy, cheap and dirty ways out. Germany is the leading exporter of PE (polyethylene) and Japan is the leading exporter of PS (polystyrene). The U.S. currently exports about one-third of all its recycling, and almost 50 percent of that has been going to China, according to NPR. And the exporting countries happily contributed, sending shiploads full of waste to China every year. "That move will raise manufacturing costs in China and will be passed along to consumers," Minter added. Recycling fees are rising. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. This story is part of Planet or Plastic?âour multiyear effort to raise awareness about the global plastic waste crisis. Scrapyards in the U.S. didn’t know what to do with them, he said, despite the motors containing valuable recyclable materials like copper wiring. It will take time to develop and expand domestic systems and markets and to change product design.â, Jambeck adds: âThe recycling system in the United States especially has been challenging, and in general, less economically viable for some time.â (Learn more about the plastic pollution crisis.). In the longer term though, activists have stressed that there could be many positive effects of the ban. “They realize they now have enough of their own garbage. All Rights Reserved. Related: China to the United States: Stop sending us your junk. Additionally, China remains without fully developed waste management systems, the study concludes. âTrash will not pile up in streets, but recycling will be reduced and there will be more pressure on U.S. companies to buy more recycled plastic for their products,â says Siegler. There are, however, “no new waste markets with equivalent capacity to China’s,” the nonprofit added. ‘Why don’t we first deal with what’s in our own backyard instead of taking care of other people’s problems?’”. Ultimately, the outcome of this ban ― whether positive or negative ― depends on the choices made by China, the countries that export their waste and the nations that may take China’s place in accepting them, said Hernandez. -- Nanlin Fang contributed to this report. This new study, which she co-authored with Amy Brooks, a University of Georgia doctoral student, suggests that Chinaâs action may force the world to come up with âbold global ideas and actionsâ to more realistically dispose of a material that has accumulated more waste than any other material. “China would buy anything and everything, I’m not exaggerating,” he said. That depressing statistic is a key finding in a new study, published Wednesday in Science Advances, that assesses the impact of globe-trotting plastic trash and what the future of recycling might look like now that China has redrawn the map.
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