Plastic Planet Each person in the U.S. generates the equivalent of 3,700 bottles in plastic waste annually
Based on an example 1.5 litre PET bottle weighing 30 grams
Source: Environmental Protection Agency
The import ban helped to focus attention on the insalubrious side to a global waste market projected to be worth $530 billion by 2025: shipping plastics from richer countries to poorer ones predominantly in Asia and the Pacific.
QuickTake: The Problem With Plastic
Overnight, major exporters of plastic waste such as Germany lost their biggest trading partner. Japan was faced with having to find new destinations for around 94% of its plastic and is experiencing severe strain on storage. At the same time, data shows total trade was down in 2018, suggesting that countries are handling more of their own waste.
Waste Displaced Exports were diverted elsewhere after China, however overall trade remains down
Trade data does not track re-exports to other countries. Exports to Hong Kong were largely re-exported to China. *2019 data until October.
Sources: United Nations Comtrade Database, United States Census Bureau, Eurostat
By 2030, China’s policy will have displaced 111 million metric tons (122 million U.S. tons) of plastic waste to other countries, according to a University of Georgia study.[1] That’s the equivalent in weight of about 335 Empire State Buildings.
Some of China’s neighbors bore the brunt of the displacement. According to UN Comtrade, a database for official trade data, Malaysia was the new top destination for the world’s plastic in 2018. Indonesia saw a 250% increase in plastic waste imports, government figures show. In Vietnam, where domestic plastic consumption has risen more than tenfold since 1990, inbound shipments surged 200%. Such huge increases rapidly overwhelmed countries, prompting governments to impose their own prohibitions on trash imports.
New Trading Partners China’s inundated neighbors decided to implement their own bans
Monthly imports of plastic waste, in tons
China announces
ban by 2018
Monthly imports of plastic waste, in tons
India ban;
Indonesia
sends back
contaminated
imports
China announces
ban starting
Jan. 1, 2018
Thailand announces ban by 2021
Sources: United Nations Comtrade Database, Malaysia External Trade Statistics, Taiwan Bureau of Foreign Trade, India Department of Commerce, Thailand Trading Report, and Statistics Indonesia
Plastic exports are regulated by the Basel Convention, which allows trade of only clean, sorted and recyclable plastic. But that’s not always observed. Malaysia said this week that it had repatriated 150 containers of illegal plastic waste. In September, Indonesia said it was returning 100 containers of contaminated waste to Australia, among other countries. In November, Australia announced a staged ban on exporting unprocessed waste plastic, as well as paper, glass and tires, starting July. Changes to the Convention due to come into effect next year will require exporters to get prior consent for plastic shipments classed as “difficult” to recycle.
An Indonesian customs officer inspects containers filled with trash originating from Australia that should have contained only waste paper.
Photographer: Juni Kriswanto/AFP/Getty Images
There are financial incentives for handling waste: Malaysia’s plastic recycling and manufacturing industry is worth about $7.2 billion, government figures show. China’s ban has countries like Malaysia and Indonesia turning their domestic plastic waste into a commodity. The Indonesian government has partnered with British startup Plastic Energy, who has developed a chemical process capable of recycling difficult plastic waste, and has plans for five plants. The country has ambitiously committed to reduce marine plastic debris by 70 percent by 2025. Plastic Energy is also working with Petronas, a Malaysian oil company with plans to bring the technology to Malaysia.
A large portion of Turkish recycling capacity is occupied by imported waste from Germany and the U.K., due to its higher quality from more effective sorting processes. Only 6% of domestic plastic waste is recycled through these facilities, according to the OECD.
China’s ban, known as National Sword, has shifted plastic waste from a global problem to a country of origin problem, since the majority of waste is still handled domestically—in 2016 just 4% of global waste was exported.[2]
Many of the nations surveyed, including South Africa, the Philippines and Canada, send the majority of their waste to be buried in landfill sites. At least five of the Group of 20 biggest economies—Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, India and Indonesia—dump millions of tons of plastic untreated, for it to find its way into watercourses and the ocean. The Mediterranean Sea is polluted at a rate equivalent to 33,800 plastic bottles every minute, according to WWF.[3]
Methods of Disposal Landfill and open dumping dominates among countries surveyed
All types of municipal solid waste
All types of municipal solid waste
Latest data as of Sept. 2018
Source: World Bank’s What a Waste 2.0: A Global Snapshot of Solid Waste Management to 2050
Yet there are promising developments too. Russia, which has a recycling rate of just 4%, is reforming its whole waste-management system, establishing 220 new garbage plants at the cost of about 290 billion rubles ($4.5 billion), and rolling out its first city-wide recycling scheme in Moscow earlier this month.
Saudi Arabia has established a state waste management company with the aim of introducing municipal recycling from scratch. Nigeria, which used to send bales of plastic waste to Asia, sees an opportunity to process locally the estimated 149,240 tons it produced in 2018.
QuickTake: Recycling
The EU has set targets for all plastic packaging—the top source of plastic waste—to be recyclable by 2030, and has put greater emphasis on policies that shift the cost of waste management from local governments to producers. That’s helping to spur innovation in packaging design and prompting companies like Procter & Gamble and Unilever to slash their use of new plastic. Danish brewer Carlsberg developed a paper beer bottle. Coca-Cola and Pepsi have voiced concerns about being able to access enough recycled material, sending prices soaring.
Markets Shifting Recycled materials are at their highest price since monitoring began
High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) Most commonly recycled plastic. Sturdy and durable, often used to carry milk, oil or detergents
High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE)
Most commonly recycled plastic. Sturdy and durable, often used to carry milk, oil or detergents
China announces
ban on scrap imports
Scrap price shown for ‘natural’ (clear) grade. New price shown for contract blow molding.
Sources: Bloomberg Intelligence, RecyclingMarkets.net
Perhaps most significantly of all, two years on from its import ban, China announced plans to curb domestic consumption of single-use plastics.
In the U.S., the restrictions imposed in 2018 were “very painful in the short term,” the Plastics Industry Association acknowledged in an emailed statement. But China’s actions helped to spur new investments in recycling, the group said, with the result that “we expect the domestic capacity and capability to be greatly expanded in the coming years.”