China's "foreign litter" ban has officially started, the relevant analysis pointed out that the New Deal is expected to have some impact on the major exporters of waste is not small in Japan, for example, has been Japan's exports of waste plastics, half are exported to China, 70% The waste paper exports to China.
According to 21st Century Business Herald data provided by Japan External Trade Organization Shanghai Representative Office (JETRO Shanghai), Japan is a major exporter of China in terms of waste plastics and waste paper, and in 2016 Japan exported to China Accounted for 11.5% of the whole year, which is the second largest source of waste plastics. Japan accounted for 20.5% of the total wastepaper sources, second only to the United States.
21st Century Business Heights Phone Interview Professor Liu Jianguo, School of Environment, Tsinghua University
Liu Jianguo, Professor of Environment, Tsinghua University: For a long time, the developed countries such as Europe, the United States and Japan basically regarded their exports to China as one of the main ways to solve their waste paper waste problem. The treatment cost was very low, but in fact it just shifted the issue These countries have formed a long-term dependence on them, leading to their lack of relevant domestic processing capacity.
'Foreign trash' ban landing, Japan's waste plastics exports to China, double-ended exports
According to the data provided by JETRO Shanghai, the import of waste plastics and waste paper in China showed a downward trend in the second half of last year, and the two types of wastes imported from Japan and the United States also dropped significantly.
Waste plastic imported from Japan in November 2017 was around 35,000 tons compared with the previous peak of nearly 100,000 tons in June 2017. The imported waste paper from Japan in November 2017 was about 40,000 tons, The previous peak level was nearly 150,000 tons in April 2017.
On July 27, 2017, the State Council General Office released the Circular on Printing and Issuing the Implementation Plan of Prohibiting the Importation of Foreign Rubbish to Promote the Reform of the Management System of Import of Solid Waste, which requires the relevant departments to:
By the end of July 2017, the Catalog of Imported Solid Waste will be readjusted. By the end of 2017, it is forbidden to import waste plastic, unsorted waste paper, textile waste and vanadium slag from living sources.
Gradual and orderly reduction of the types and quantities of solid waste imports. Disaggregated by category Adjust the catalog of imported solid waste management to significantly reduce the types and quantities of solid waste imports (MEP, Ministry of Commerce, NDRC, General Administration of Customs, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine Responsible for the implementation, completed by the end of 2019)
According to an article published in the JETRO newsletter, Hong Kong Commercial Daily, September 15, 2017, as the major importer of waste plastics and waste paper in Japan, it is expected that the changes in China's policy will have a significant impact on Japan. Japan, Exports of recyclable waste may even come to an end.
21st Century Business Herald Telephone Interview Friends of Nature Foundation, Zero Discard Union policy adviser Mao Da
Maoda, However Friends of the Foundation, Zero Waste Alliance policy adviser: As for the bulk of waste plastics, as major exporting countries such as the United States and Japan, as far as I know, after the implementation of the New Deal in China, the waste plastics in these countries are suddenly in a state of indigestibility. They relied on the transfer of pollution by exports. Therefore, Domestic related capacity is not enough.
On the other hand, some plastic waste can not be recycled in any country. Now it can not be exported. It can only be disposed of as a complete waste at home. This will of course result in the disposal of its original domestic waste pressure.
In the short term, Japan will face some unfavorable conditions. For example, low value-added waste plastics, including composite plastics and hybrid plastics, can not be exported to China now, so they must be incinerated or landfilled domestically.
Japan mainly uses the incineration method. Although the treatment level in Japan is relatively high, the increase in the total amount to be handled poses a challenge to its handling capacity and may increase pollution.
Short-term increase exports to countries in Southeast Asia, long-term or forcing Japan to upgrade capacity
Related analysis points out, The ban introduced by China will cause confusion in some countries of origin in the short term, but it will be beneficial to both sides in the long run.
Maoda, Friends of Nature Foundation, Zero Waste Alliance Policy Advisor: November 17 I participated in the China Synthetic Resin Supply and Marketing Association Plastics Recycling Branch organized ChinaReplas2017 (Autumn) 18th China Plastics Recycling and Recycling Conference At the meeting, Peng Dek Co., Ltd. of Japan made a sharing that Japan produces more than 2 million tons of plastic waste each year, and three-fourths needs to be exported, mainly to China, which can only digest one quarter .
In the face of China's new policy, Japan has several countermeasures. One is to increase exports of low-value waste plastics in Southeast Asia and increase the amount of high value-added plastics handled in its own country. This will force Japan to increase and upgrade related production capacity .
In addition, China has not banned the import of waste plastics from industrial sources. However, due to the intensification of relevant regulations, Japan's export costs to China's industrial source plastics may also rise.
Another possible result is that Japan has relatively high processing technologies and the quality of recycled plastic products produced is good. There is still some demand for high-quality plastics in China, so this part of exports will be boosted.
Japan is a big producer of packaging, especially some low-value plastic packaging, particularly poor recovery, so no economy, the future trend must be forced to innovate packaging materials, and reduce the dependence on disposable packaging, I think Japan The food industry, fast moving consumer goods industry, may bring deeper challenges.
Podiak Co., Ltd. Overseas Manager Liu Zhaoshan in the autumn of ChinaReplas2017 speech
According to information provided by JETRO Shanghai to 21st Century Business Herald, the agency provided some comments and countermeasures for the Japanese parties after the government dealt with the issue of the New Deal. The agency suggested that Japan should pay attention to the possibility of further expansion of China's imported waste catalog in the future Extended to the metal category) and related inspections further tightening.
As for countermeasures, the agency suggested that Japan should pay close attention to whether there is any difference in inspections in China and how to shift its exports to other countries.
'However, after a comprehensive analysis, we think that Japan's domestic production capacity will not change rapidly because faster measures will increase exports to Southeast Asia "Said Mao Da.
According to preliminary statistics provided by the Thomson Reuters Foundation for International Recovery Agency, the import volume of waste plastics in Southeast Asian countries soared in the fourth quarter of 2017. In Malaysia, for example, the import of waste plastics soared in 2017 45-50,000 tons compared with less than 300,000 tons in 2016. Vietnam's imports increased by 62% year-on-year to 500,000-550,000 tons while that of Thailand and Indonesia increased by 117% and 65% respectively.
Liu Jianguo, Professor of Environment, Tsinghua University: Finding alternatives is even more viable, with countries such as India and Southeast Asia 'picking up' the bulk of China's banned waste, whose stage of development also determines the large number of these countries' demand for low-end recycled goods .
In addition, the countries of origin will also increase their domestic capacity to solve part of the waste, but there is a long way to go between Japan's domestic waste recycling and actual demand. There should be no way to achieve an overall increase in production capacity in a short period of time.
However, some people point out that the quest for waste alternatives to exporting countries is not long-term and effective "Increasing the output to Southeast Asia is a short-term alternative, but I expect Southeast Asia to learn from China and launch similar measures later," said Mao.
The impact of the 'foreign litter' ban is not limited to direct stakeholders such as upstream Japanese exporters, but also to the downstream of the related industrial chains.
The performance of Japanese technology electronics company General Fujitsu in FY 2017 (April 2017-March 2018) released on January 25 is expected to show operating profit in FY17 as a decrease of about 23% from FY16, which The company said it is one of the main reasons behind the drop in the price of raw materials.
According to "Nihon Keizai Shimbun" reported that the company vice president Tadashi Yamauchi, January 25 earnings announcement lamented:
The rise of raw materials caused by the change of China's environmental policy has started to take shape. For example, plastics, China recently tightened the import of waste plastics, which reduced the circulation of recycled plastics. The price of plastic in China rose and the price of exports also went up With the rise, right now the price of raw materials continues.
For enterprises in the upstream and downstream of the domestic resource recycling chain in China, they also began to seek a response to the ban on foreign rubbish.
Maoda, Friends of Nature Foundation, Zero Waste Alliance Policy Advisor: Some of the original only recycled plastics business, extending to both ends of the industrial chain, one end is up to the waste classification, because only involved in garbage classification to grab the raw material, or is then extended downstream, is no longer a single plastic Reproduce production, but began to do high value-added, well-designed recycled plastic products.