Plastic Waste Export to Asia in Criticism | Asia | '
China's decision had been in progress for some time, and at the beginning of 2018 it came into force: no more imports of plastic waste were allowed into the country. This had a massive impact on global trade in this controversial "good": total exports of the 21 main exporters decreased from 1.1 million tonnes (per month!) In mid-2016 to 500,000 tonnes by the end of 2018.
In the case of the ASEAN countries, with the lion's share of Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, the reverse was true: these four countries became the main buyers of plastic waste between mid-2017 and mid-2018. Their imports increased by more than 170 percent, from around 840,000 to around 2.3 million tons! Although these volumes declined slightly in mid-2018 due to temporary measures against the diverted waste streams.
ASEAN countries no longer want to be a "global landfill"
People and the environment suffer from waste imports
However, in the run-up to the ASEAN summit in late June in Bangkok, the Greenpeace representative from the Philippines stated: "Unfortunately, the ASEAN region remains the preferred destination for foreign waste disposal following China's ban of 2018. Trade in plastic waste and electronic waste is under exploitation from legal loopholes, under the guise of 'recycling' and 'recovery', leaving much of the imported waste to landfill or being illegally incinerated. "
The evil consequences for humans and the environment Greenpeace has documented in the case of Malaysia. Accordingly, a temporary ban on imports in July 2018 and the closure of 30 illegal recycling companies did little to change the fact that plastic waste is stored or incinerated in hundreds of wild landfills, with corresponding toxic emissions.
The majority of Malaysian recycling companies operate illegally, says Heng Kiah Chun of Greenpeace Malaysia to ‘. The government-issued import license is being abused by "irresponsible people to import contaminated and inferior plastic waste." And both legal and illegal recycling companies employ subcontractors who blame them for improper handling of waste, says Greenpeace spokesman.
This should be over: Wild burning of imported "plastic dung"
Countries overwhelmed by global trade flows
The fact that plastic waste, which is actually intended for recycling, is largely disposed of illegally is not surprising to Thomas Probst, plastics expert at the German Association of Secondary Raw Materials and Disposal (BVSE): "A wide range of plastics is being purchased, some of them very good qualities, but some are medium or poor qualities, and if you buy medium and poor grades that are in demand and traded globally for a variety of reasons, then you have a relatively high proportion of non-plastics and difficult-to-use plastics. "
The latter would be largely disposed of in Germany and Europe via waste incineration plants or processed into substitute fuels. "Unfortunately, this infrastructure exists in these countries (ASEAN – Red.Greenpeace notes that Malaysia, like other ASEAN countries, "does not have an adequate system to handle the sharp rise in imports of plastic waste."
Take seriously the recent drastic action by Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, where illegally declared and unusable waste shipments have been returned; That was at least a "yellow-red card", Thomas Probst from industry association BVSE states: "It is unacceptable that we export our plastics in the world in order to outsource certain areas for which we have not yet provided." In Germany, too, "when it comes to plastic recycling, we are just beginning."
Redirection of plastic waste to China's import ban
Global recycling – illusion or solution?
But while the Greenpeace activists condemn the global recycling system as "broken and unreparable," the chemicals, consumer goods, and recycling industries, according to the Handelsblatt, "want to establish the most comprehensive circulatory systems possible on a global scale to either use or recycle waste plastics energetically." Therefore, these corporations also reject a complete import stop for plastic waste, as demanded by Greenpeace and considered by some politicians in the ASEAN region.
Not only industry representatives are critical of a general import stop: "This would jeopardize the business of good recycling companies, and thus have fewer options for sustainable waste management in the future, and every government should have more and no fewer options," said Kakuko Nagatani-Yoshida from the UN Environment Program versus The New York Times.
Return to sender: Malaysia returns containers of unusable plastic waste
Stricter export controls
Environmentalists are now placing high hopes in the tightening of export controls on plastic waste decided in May. "According to the new requirements of the Basel Convention, only single-origin waste and practically non-polluting mixtures of polypropylene, polyethylene and PET, which are proven to be recyclable, can be traded freely with other countries," the BVSE sums up the decision. However, there is a catch, as Manfred Santen of Greenpeace points out: "Success depends on functioning controls, both in plastic exporting Europe and in the garbage importing countries of Southeast Asia or, more recently, Turkey or India."
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Fight the disposable plastic
For Malaysia's Heng Kiah Chun, the new Basel agreement is just a first step in the right direction. It is crucial to drastically restrict or prohibit the production and consumption of plastic, especially disposable packaging. The G20 countries also want to take the initiative in this area at their summit in Osaka.
One thing is certain: neither with a ban nor with controls on the import of waste alone would the problem of garbage be solved by countries with massive plastic consumption. Not least the problem of pollution of the oceans with eight million tons of plastic annually. Take China, for example: Although it has closed as a landfill for foreign countries – this does not change the 60 million containers for food "to go", which are thrown away there once a single use.
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