Plastics Pile Up as China Refuses to Take the West’s Recycling

Plastics Pile Up as China Refuses to Take the West’s Recycling

Posted on January 15, 2018 by DrRossH in Plastic Limiting Regulations

Since Jan. 1, China has banned imports of 24 kinds of waste, including materials used in plastic bottles, in a campaign against “foreign garbage.”

Source: Plastics Pile Up as China Refuses to Take the West’s Recycling

“We’ve got to start producing less and we’ve got to produce better-quality recyclable goods,” Mr. Ellin said.

Too often, he said, manufacturers produce environmentally harmful products and then “pass the buck” to retailers, who in turn pass it to local councils to pick up the tab to sort out the waste for recycling.

“What’s happened is that the final link in the supply chain has turned around and said: ‘No, we’re not going to take this poor-quality stuff anymore. Keep it for yourself.’”

This is just very bad management by the West.  Allowing producers to get away without paying the real cost of their products and passing it on to others.  Now hopefully this is the start of putting costs back up the supply chain so that goods sold have a price that reflects the full cost of their production and disposal.