{"id":41005,"date":"2017-10-20T12:04:30","date_gmt":"2017-10-20T19:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=41005"},"modified":"2017-10-20T12:04:30","modified_gmt":"2017-10-20T19:04:30","slug":"china-bans-foreign-waste-will-happen-worlds-recycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/china-bans-foreign-waste-will-happen-worlds-recycling\/","title":{"rendered":"China bans foreign waste \u2013 but what will happen to the world\u2019s recycling?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nThe dominant position that\u00a0China holds in global manufacturing<\/a>\u00a0means that for many years China has also been the\u00a0largest global importer of many types of recyclable materials<\/a>. Last year, Chinese manufacturers imported 7.3m metric tonnes of waste plastics from developed countries including the UK, the EU, the US and Japan.<\/p>\n

However, in July 2017, China announced\u00a0big changes in the quality control<\/a>\u00a0placed on imported materials, notifying the\u00a0World Trade Organisation<\/a>\u00a0that it will\u00a0ban imports of 24 categories of recyclables and solid waste<\/a>\u00a0by the end of the year. This campaign against\u00a0yang laji<\/em>\u00a0or \u201cforeign garbage\u201d applies to plastic, textiles and mixed paper and will result in China taking a lot less material as it replaces imported materials with recycled material collected in its own domestic market, from its growing middle-class and Western-influenced consumers.<\/p>\n

The impact of this will be far-reaching.\u00a0China is the dominant market<\/a>\u00a0for recycled plastic. There are concerns that much of the waste that China currently imports, especially the lower grade materials, will have nowhere else to go.<\/p>\n

This applies equally to other countries including the EU27, where 87% of the recycled plastic collected was exported directly, or indirectly (via Hong Kong), to China. Japan and the US also rely on China to buy their recycled plastic. Last year, the\u00a0US exported<\/a>\u00a01.42m tons of scrap plastics, worth an estimated US$495m to China.
\n

\"\"

With a population of over 1.4 billion, China\u2019s domestic waste management is a challenge in itself. Wu Hong\/EPA<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

Plastic problems<\/strong><\/h4>\n

So what will happen to the plastic these countries collect through household recycling systems once the Chinese refuse to accept it? What are the alternatives?<\/p>\n

Plastics collected for recycling could go to energy recovery (incineration<\/a>). They are, after all, a\u00a0fossil-fuel based<\/a>\u00a0material and burn extremely well \u2013 so on a positive note, they could generate electricity and improve energy self-sufficiency.<\/p>\n

They could also go to\u00a0landfill<\/a>\u00a0(not ideal) \u2013 imagine the press headlines. Alternatively, materials could be stored until new markets are found. This also brings problems, however \u2013 there have been\u00a0hundreds<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0fires at sites where recyclable materials are stored<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Time to change our relationship with plastic?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

While it is a reliable material, taking\u00a0many forms<\/a>\u00a0from cling film (surround wrap) to flexible packaging to rigid materials used in electronic items, the problems caused by plastic, most notably\u00a0litter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0ocean plastics<\/a>, are receiving increasing attention.<\/p>\n

One way forward might be to limit its functions. Many disposable items are made from plastic. Some of them are disposable by necessity for hygiene purposes \u2013 for instance, blood bags and other medical items \u2013 but many others are disposable for convenience.<\/p>\n

Looking at the consumer side of things, there are ways of cutting back on plastic.\u00a0Limiting the use of plastic bags<\/a>\u00a0through financial disincentives is one\u00a0initiative<\/a>\u00a0that has\u00a0shown results<\/a>\u00a0and brought about\u00a0changes in consumer behaviour<\/a>. In France,\u00a0some disposable plastic items are banned<\/a>\u00a0and in the Britain, leading pub chain Wetherspoons\u00a0has banned<\/a>disposable, one-use plastic drinking straws.<\/p>\n

Deposit and return schemes<\/a>\u00a0for plastic bottles (and drink cans) could also incentivise behaviour.\u00a0Micro-beads<\/a>,\u00a0widely used in cosmetics as exfoliants<\/a>, are now a target as the damage they do becomes increasingly apparent and the UK government has announced plans to\u00a0ban their use in some products<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This follows similar actions announced by the\u00a0US<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Canada<\/a>, with several EU nations, South Korea and New Zealand\u00a0also planning to implement bans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many local authorities collect recycling that is jumbled together. But a major side effect of this type of collection is that while it is convenient for the householder, there are high\u00a0contamination levels<\/a>\u00a0which leads to\u00a0reduced material quality<\/a>. This will mean it is either sold for lower prices into a limited market, will need to be reprocessed through sorting plants, or will be incinerated or put in landfill. But changes to recycling collections and\u00a0reprocessing<\/a>\u00a0to improve the quality of materials could be expensive.<\/p>\n

Alternatively, recycled plastic\u00a0could be used<\/a>\u00a0to provide chemicals to the petrochemical sector,\u00a0fuels<\/a>\u00a0to the transport and aviation sectors,\u00a0food packaging<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0many other applications<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The problems we are now facing are caused by China\u2019s global dominance in manufacturing and the way many countries have relied on one market to solve their waste and recycling problems. The current situation offers us an opportunity to find new solutions to our waste problem, increase the proportion of recycled plastic in our own manufactured products, improve the quality of recovered materials and to use recycled material in new ways.<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong> Christine Cole is a Research Fellow, Architecture, Design and the Built Environment at Nottingham Trent University<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The dominant position that\u00a0China holds in global manufacturing\u00a0means that for many years China has also been the\u00a0largest global importer of many types of recyclable materials. Last year, Chinese manufacturers imported 7.3m metric tonnes of waste plastics from developed countries including the UK, the EU, the US and Japan. However, in July 2017, China announced\u00a0big changes […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":41006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[647],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-41005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","tag-recycling"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nChina bans foreign waste \u2013 but what will happen to the world\u2019s recycling? - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/china-bans-foreign-waste-will-happen-worlds-recycling\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"China bans foreign waste \u2013 but what will happen to the world\u2019s recycling? - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The dominant position that\u00a0China holds in global manufacturing\u00a0means that for many years China has also been the\u00a0largest global importer of many types of recyclable materials. 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