The economic development of any country cannot be smooth sailing. It will undergo various twists and turns, even at some stage it is dirty and unbearable.
Today, I want to share with you the history of the past in economic development - foreign garbage.
In the past 20 years, we have been the world's largest importer of waste. The data show that since 1992, 160 million tons of bottles, plastic bags, packaging paper and other wastes have been imported, accounting for about 26 years of global waste. 45% of the total, about 20 million adult African elephants. Among them, 72% of the world's plastic waste flows to us.
Most of these garbage comes from developed countries such as North America, Germany, Britain, and Japan.
Why do we have to receive garbage from developed countries? So much garbage import, where did we finally go?
In the 1980s and 1990s, China was in the early stage of reform and opening up, and the process of economic and industrialization developed rapidly. Infrastructure construction was in full swing. Many industries, including manufacturing, expanded rapidly, and the demand for industrial raw materials rose rapidly. The solid waste is treated to meet the demand for raw materials in China to a certain extent.
In the case of plastic bottles, after importing these plastic bottles, they will be sent to the recycling plant. In the recycling factory, first, a large number of workers will sort the bottles according to color and material, cut into pieces, and tidy up; Some of them will be spun into silk to make clothes, and the other part will be crushed and separated into recycled plastic pellets for remaking plastic bottles or more.
Plastics are derivatives of crude oil. Due to the impact of rising international oil prices, the price of plastics is rising, but the recycling price of waste plastics is very low. As a result, the profits of plastics sold after recycling and reprocessing are high. The gross profit of the foreign garbage recycling factory is even as high as 200%. Therefore, only the waste plastics, China accounts for more than half of the global export value of waste plastics.
Not only waste plastics, but a lot of garbage has formed a complete recycling processing industry chain.
For a more intuitive example, importing one ton of discarded mobile phones from Europe and the United States can extract 100kg of copper, 1kg~3kg of silver, and 0.2kg~0.3kg of gold. These refined gold, silver and copper have brought considerable benefits to the recycling plant. Profit.
From the perspective of commercial value, garbage can turn into gold. Driven by high profits, it will be willing to receive so much garbage from the world.
Since junk is so profitable, why do developed countries do not deal with it directly, but instead send them in a thousand miles? The reason is simple:
First, developed countries do not have as much cheap labor to do this.
More critically, these foreign garbage will consume a lot of water and electricity during the process of treatment, and will cause serious pollution problems.
According to previous surveys, only 85% of a ton of plastic waste can be recycled, and the remaining plastic waste will be disposed of nearby. In the remaining waste, there are many substances that are difficult to degrade, which may cause soil, water resources, etc. Reversal of pollution, this is the price of development.
More than a decade ago, I went to an abandoned plastic recycling company to do research. At that time, the company's profit was very good, but also listed on the A-share market. But at the scene, I saw a scene of unforgettable serious pollution. The scene. Standing on the edge of the landfill, I was thinking, in the next 30 years, 50 years, what will our children and grandchildren think about the price we pay for development today?
Some of these costs will be reported to ourselves, for example, our physical health is hurt; and a larger part will be reported to our children and grandchildren, for example, many land and water polluted by garbage for 100 years. Can't recover, there are still some places where groundwater can't be consumed for 200 years...
Since 2016, China has successively announced a number of new policies to stop importing foreign garbage. This embarrassing history is passing. By 2030, the world is expected to have 110 million tons of plastic waste to be buried and recycled. There may be another alternative importer of waste.