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UK 'Faces Build-up of Plastic Waste' (bbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the acknowledging-the-problem dept.

The UK's recycling industry says it doesn't know how to cope with a Chinese ban on imports of plastic waste. From a report: Britain has been shipping up to 500,000 tonnes of plastic for recycling in China every year, but now the trade has been stopped. At the moment the UK cannot deal with much of that waste, says the UK Recycling Association. Its chief executive, Simon Ellin, told the BBC he had no idea how the problem would be solved in the short term. "It's a huge blow for us... a game-changer for our industry," he said. "We've relied on China so long for our waste... 55% of paper, 25% plus of plastics. "We simply don't have the markets in the UK. It's going to mean big changes in our industry." China has introduced the ban from this month on "foreign garbage" as part of a move to upgrade its industries.

11 of 308 comments (clear)

  1. Not surprising, really. by Mal-2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    China now produces plenty of waste of their own, and they are struggling to handle their own volume of garbage. It's no surprise they would stop accepting anyone else's.

    There's always Africa, right?

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    1. Re:Not surprising, really. by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

      China now produces plenty of waste of their own, and they are struggling to handle their own volume of garbage.

      The only labor intensive part is the separating. I spent 4 months in China last year (2017), and the garbage sorting requirements are strict, with fines for failure to comply. It seemed like everyone was sorting properly, at least where I was living (Shanghai/Pudong).

      There's always Africa, right?

      Cheap labor is only part of the problem. You also need the industrial infrastructure to process and use the recycled plastic. A big advantage in China, is that the production of plastic is very close to the demand for it.

      It would have been nice if China had phased out their recycling more slowly, to give the rest of the world time to adapt.

      The real solution is not recycling, but reduction in the use of so much plastic crap in the first place. Many things I buy have more packaging than product.

    2. Re:Not surprising, really. by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It would have been nice if China had phased out their recycling more slowly, to give the rest of the world time to adapt.

      Why? This way they can expect some concessions in exchange for phasing it out. If they'd just announced that they were going to phase things out over two years, the UK would have had time to adapt, and no real need to make nice with China in trade talks or whatever....

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    3. Re:Not surprising, really. by Slashdot+Junky · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The western world has had plenty of time to adapt. The problem is our allowing money to dictate policy and price. We have been able ship our waste on to other people and their territories all along and keep consuming without paying the true price of said consumption. With virgin sources of plastic and other first-use resources being cheaper, we have not yet been forced by "free markets" to adapt. Landfills will be our only exploitable "natural resources" one day. Re-use, recycling, and reduction will be the only practical option for all but the wealthy in time if we're still here.

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    4. Re:Not surprising, really. by Slashdot+Junky · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why would anyone recycle if there was no value in it?

      Selfish people don't get the value in reducing, reuse, and recycling, because this requires an long-term view. It requires consideration for others that are here today and that are to come. A side from this, those of us lucky enough to have real choice can choose to do something that is best for society even when it isn't best for us, especially in the moment. We can choose to do something that is good for the planet and the other creatures and plants with which we share it. Now, we can, instead, still be selfish assholes and live differently to do our part to make the planet a better place now and in the future for just those that we care about, our families and friends' families. We can be even more selfish by doing what we can now to protect the world we'll be living in as we age. It will just be better for society and the planet for us to do more by not being so selfish. I have little faith in mankind despite our potential to be better. Actually, I see little potential as I believe humans' selfishness is too deeply ingrained.

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      Landfill Mining Co.
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    5. Re:Not surprising, really. by William+Baric · · Score: 5, Insightful

      When I was born, there was 3.5 billion people on this planet. Now there is about 7.5 billion people. Because of technological progress, we could all live a great life. Unfortunately, "selfish" people decided to have children.

      Because I decided to never have children, even if I'd drive a hummer and never cared about recycling, I would still be less "selfish" than people who chose to have children.

  2. I know how to fix this by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How about building recycling plants in your own country? Or is that too much to ask?

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    1. Re:I know how to fix this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You're forgetting this is the UK we're talking about.
      We've forgotten how to do things for ourselves here, we're now just a nation of outsourcing and reselling other peoples crap. Oh and red tape, lots and lots of red tape.
        In fact, so much red tape that even if we wanted a new plastics recycling facility to replace outsourcing it to China, it would take several years for the bureaucrats just to come an agreement on a name for it.

  3. Re:How ecologically sound! by MightyYar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The ships go back to China anyway, so sending them back full of plastic waste instead of empty still makes sense from an environmental perspective. If trade weren't so imbalanced, your comment would be spot-on.

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  4. Re:I know this isn't politically correct by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The first solution is to tax plastic packaging to make it significantly less attractive to use it for single-use applications. Once you artificially inflate that cost to reduce volume, you can likely burn a good part of it for energy, or subsidize recycling costs.

    The likes of Amazon need to be doing more to encourage sustainable packaging... which helps them lower their cost; it is asinine to ship shoplift-resistant packaging to the end user.

  5. Stupid packaging by Bert64 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The problem is caused by the ridiculous packaging that most items come in...
    More than 90% of my weekly trash is made up of plastic packaging, usually the packaging is much larger than the item it contained and is designed to look pretty on the shelf.

    Packaging should be more sensible... Plain cardboard that can biodegrade or be easily recycled, glass bottles that can be cleaned and reused (not melted down and recycled as that's a hugely energy intensive process).

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