China’s ban on the import of waste plastics from abroad has been in force for half a year. According to statistics, in the first half of this year, China imported a total of 15 batches of waste, of which 12 batches contained waste plastics, totaling 58,827 tons, and the 15th batch of approvals recently announced. There is still no waste plastic. In 2017, a total of 11 batches of waste plastics were imported. By May 2017, a total of 7,050,562 tons were imported. Compared with the same period of last year, this year's imports were less than 1% of last year's imports.
Relevant experts said at a recent meeting of the plastics industry that domestic imports of waste plastics have basically been eliminated, and the import of waste plastics has become a history, but the chain reaction triggered by China's ban on the import of waste plastics continues.
Garbage exporting country - United States
It is understood that China’s 'foreign garbage' ban has continued to cause pain in the United States, and various garbage dumps are still piled up. Although some US waste companies have changed to domestically process recyclable materials or ship more materials to other countries. However, some scrap companies have been unable to find a replacement market in China. A related person from a waste management company in the United States said to the media: 'Suddenly, there is no place to collect waste on the street.'
At a meeting of the World Trade Organization in Geneva this year, the US representative asked China to continue to import plastic waste, because China’s ban on imports, 'import restrictions on recyclable goods have caused fundamental damage to the global waste material supply chain, making them unable to Recycling, which can create economic value, can only be discarded. He asked China to immediately stop implementing these measures and adjust them in accordance with the existing international trade standards for waste materials. ' In response, the Chinese representative’s response was : China will stop importing another 32 types of garbage.
Garbage exporting country - UK
At the time of China’s ban, the United Kingdom transferred its domestic plastic waste to other countries and regions. The amount of waste exported to Malaysia was three times that of the past, and the export volume to Vietnam increased by 50%. The volume has soared to 50 times in the past. In addition, the UK’s waste exports to Taiwan have also increased by more than 10 times.
Exporting garbage to other countries and regions can only alleviate the immediate needs of the UK and cannot solve the problem of foreign garbage fundamentally. To this end, the United Kingdom has also introduced a series of policies aimed at thoroughly eradicating foreign garbage. The British Prime Minister in February this year High-profile plastic warfare 'declaration of war': eradicating all avoidable plastic waste in 25 years. In the British overseas territory of St. Helena, the British government has launched a plan to reduce and monitor plastic pollution in the South Atlantic island of St. Helena. The goal of the program is to reduce the amount of plastic used by residents on the island and to establish a recycling system for waste plastics.
Garbage exporting country - Japan
According to Japanese media reports, various parts of Japan are now full of plastic waste. The reason is that China’s recycling of waste plastics, the main export destination, has imposed import restrictions, which has caused Japan’s recycling to be unable to catch up. On the other hand, it is widely rejected worldwide. Use disposable plastic products, strengthen regulatory measures and other sports.
The report also said that Japan's current solution can only be exported to other countries or burned. Since this year, Japan has increased exports to Thailand and Vietnam, but it is far from making up for the amount originally exported to China. And the Thai government has already It is said that due to the incidents of illegal disposal of resource waste from Japan, import restrictions will soon be introduced. Incineration of plastic waste will also cause problems. The classified waste can be recycled and used as fuel to generate heat for power plants. Direct incineration, waste sorting will also lose its meaning. And the high temperature generated by the burning of plastics may also damage the incinerator. Even in the process of incineration, a large amount of carbon dioxide is released, which aggravates the warming of the climate. About 70% of the waste plastics in Japan are now If it is incinerated, it can no longer increase the proportion of incineration.
A senior Japanese government official said that Japan plans to use the waste plastics issue as one of the main topics at the G20 summit, which will be its presidency next year, to formulate a national strategy for waste plastics at the G20 level, and hopes that Japan can develop in the construction. Contribute to the framework mechanism of China.
Garbage importing country - Southeast Asian countries
Since the implementation of the 'foreign garbage' ban in China, Southeast Asian countries have become new dumping grounds for plastic waste in waste-exporting countries. As mentioned above, the amount of waste exported to Malaysia is only three times that of the United Kingdom alone. The export volume increased by 50%, and the export volume to Thailand surged 50 times. The influx of plastic waste has caused great damage to the ecological environment of Southeast Asian countries. The Philippines, Vietnam is under the 'attack' of a steady stream of foreign garbage. Nowadays, it has become the most polluted country in the world. In order to change this situation, some Southeast Asian countries are also considering bans on the import of plastic waste.
In Vietnam, due to excessive backlog of pending containers, Vietnam has stopped accepting four months of waste plastics in late June; Malaysia is also reviewing its domestic plastic waste import policy; Thailand has banned imports of waste plastics and electronics since July 2 Garbage, Thailand will also plan to inspect 2,240 plastic recycling plants to search illegally imported e-waste and other violations of environmental and labor laws, as well as import licenses. From this point of view, it is difficult for the waste-exporting countries, including Europe and the United States, to continue to Southeast Asian countries have exported a large amount of plastic garbage.
Conclusion
Exporting domestically produced plastic waste to other countries to mitigate the impact on the domestic environment, this approach can only be a temporary relief, and can not solve the problem fundamentally. In order to fundamentally solve the problem of plastic waste, it is necessary to adopt advanced Technology to recycle and reprocess garbage such as plastics, establish a perfect plastic recycling system, or use environmentally friendly materials that are degradable and non-polluting, so as to fundamentally stop plastic pollution.