Richer
countries like the U.S., the E.U., Australia and Japan have been shipping their
so-called ‘recyclable’ waste to developing Southeast Asian countries for
decades. Either legal or illegal, they are taking advantage of the looser
regulations in poorer countries. “They export the trash here because it’s more
expensive for them to process the mixed, contaminated waste themselves back
home due to the tighter laws,” said Lea Guerrero, Country Director for Greenpeace
Philippines (Hillary Leung, 2019).
Here
are 8 shocking facts about the waste from West:
- China and its Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) had previously been importing 72.4 percent of all global plastic waste prior to its import ban in January 2018.
- Scientists from the University of Georgia calculated that China's ban would result in 111 million metric tons of plastic trash nowhere to go by 2030.
- Malaysia’s imports of plastic scrap rose from 20,000 tons per month at the beginning of 2017 to 110,000 tons per month in early-2018.
- In
Thailand, plastic waste import increased by more than 1,000 percent. In early-2018, its imports spiked to
75,000 tons per month.
- Philippines’s waste imports almost tripled to 11,900 tons from 2016 to 2018.
- Hong Kong was a major re-export hub of global plastic waste to China Mainland. Before China’s ban, almost all of the plastic waste imported to Hong Kong was then re-exported to China Mainland.
- Only nine percent of plastic has been recycled. 79 percent is accumulated in landfills or sloughed off in the natural environment as litter. (Meaning: at some point, much of it ends up in the oceans, the final sink.)
- It is difficult to track accurately how much waste a country has received. The real number is likely to be higher.
Graph 1: Changes in plastic waste exports from top 21
exporting countries/regions between
January 2016 and November 2018 (in tons per month)
Graph 2: Imports of plastic waste by China Mainland,
Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand
between January 2016 and November 2018 (in tons per month)
In
short, the two graphs above show two core trends emerged from China’s ban:
(1)
The majority of the plastics were redirected to less-regulated
countries/regions -- especially Southeast Asia. Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand being
the main victims.
(2)
Globally, total plastics exports dropped by about half from 2016 to 2018.
Former exporters now also sit with a surplus of waste, unprocessed or processed
inadequately.
Malaysia
is taking action
Malaysia
wants to send back around 200 containers believed to contain plastic waste. The
government has already sent back at least 10 containers of plastic waste to
different countries but they are still struggling to identify the origin of 198
more containers from three ports. 155 illegal processing plants have been closed
down.
According
to National Geographic, if present trends continue, by 2050, there will be 12
billion metric tons of plastics in landfills. That amount is 35,000 times as
heavy as the Empire State Building. We are not a “global dumpyard”. Developed
countries that manufacture such a huge amount of trash should take responsibility
for their own products. And the government from the waste-receiving countries, should
severely punish those who are making lucrative profits from importing such
waste.
Reference:
1.
Waste from West turns Southeast Asia into global dumpyard, 24 April 2019, CGTN
2.
Hillary Leung, Southeast Asia Doesn't Want to Be the World's Dumping Ground.
Here's How Some Countries Are Pushing Back https://time.com
3.
GPEA Plastic Waste Trade – Research Briefing (2019)
4.
Laura Parker, A whopping 91% of plastic isn't recycled www.nationalgeographic.com
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