China's waste import ban
Starting in early 2018, the government of China, under Operation National Sword, banned the import of several types of waste, including plastics with a contamination level of above 0.05 percent.
The recommended list was pushing forward for wastes such as plastics, textile, and paper products to be banned from imports.
[5] Based on a study by the University of Georgia, it is predicted that by 2030 with this policy, 111 million metric tons of plastic waste will be left unaccounted for.
[6] In the 1990s, economic development and the rise in living standards increased China's demand for plastic products by 21% annually.
[7] However, in that year, China lacked raw materials, and production levels were incapable of meeting its growing needs.
In some big cities, a large number of waste plastics were not being recycled and led to blockages in the urban drainage system.
In order to enhance the management of the market and the reduction of illegal traffic, the Chinese government decided to implement the green fence operation.
[9] It was reported that in just five months, China customs had seized 337 cases of smuggled solid waste, amounting to 1.7 billion RMB in value.
[5] It was reported that roughly 50% of plastics are being utilized in disposable manufacturing processes such as packaging, agricultural films, and disposables, while 20 to 25% was used for long-term infrastructure like pipes, coating for cables and structured materials and the remainder is used for durable moderate life consumer goods such as electronics, furniture, and vehicles.
[10] In general, plastic is considered to be durable and non-biodegradable hence making them difficult to decompose for at least a few decades with some lasting over hundreds or thousands of years.
However, plastic packaging may call for the need to use different kinds of polymers as well as other materials such as metals, paper, pigments, inks, and adhesives, which make it challenging to control.
Importantly, technological progress can act as an endogenous factor to increase the aggregate demand in economy and ultimately driven the economic growth in China.
The burning of uncategorized waste produces toxic and contaminate air to the sky which harmful for human health.
[citation needed] China determined in July 2017 and announced on 16 August 2017[13] that it would stop the import of 24 kinds of solid waste from foreign countries.
It is a “honey” for illegal people; but the process to dispose of foreign waste caused serious pollution to the local atmosphere, water, and soil.
Electronic waste transactions began in the eastern coastal areas of China and enabled local farmers to get rich quickly.
[18] The waste ban policy hopefully improves severe circumstances in China and facilitates the healthy development of people and society.
The raw materials supply faces a gap of millions of tons without the imported waste from foreign countries.
A waste problem miniature is about the cemetery of "share bicycle" in China which thousands of bikes were discarded in dumping grounds.
The ocean waste is a global problem, countless marine animals died for eating the plastic products every year.
[24] Stacked garbage and improper handling create a good living place for bacteria, causing various diseases in areas with poor sanitation.
The United States exported about 4,000 shipping containers of garbage to China every day before the waste ban policy.
Adina Renee, from Scrap Recycling Industries in a Washington-based institution, stated that "There is no single and frankly, probably not even a group of countries, that can take in the volume that China used to take.
The sudden ban on imports has led many countries to conclude that they are ill-equipped to recycle and manage their own waste output.
Robin Wiener, President of the US Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), said that these changes are "a big force for us in raising this issue with the US government".
Australia handled approximately 40 percent of its waste by using the landfill method, which has a very big severe impact on its land.
Woolworths and Coles, both big domestic retail companies, had also announced plans in phasing out plastic bags in their stores.
[6] The existing marine pollution of Asia is dire enough, and there is no doubt that transporting waste to countries with no processing capacity will exacerbate this problem.
[41] According to the Financial Times, after the ban on China, the UK's waste exports to Malaysia tripled, and the domestic recycling industry is still sluggish.
[20] European authorities have realized the value of plastic waste, claiming that if recycling capacity quadruples, it could create 200,000 jobs by 2030.
