https://www.ouest-france.fr/economie/de ... es-5514882
Since the January 1er, Beijing has blocked the import of 24 waste categories, while China is the world's leading recycling destination.
Landfill or incineration? By blocking the import of certain wastes, China, the world's leading destination for recycling, poses the risk of a "disaster scenario" for the environment in rich countries ... and puts in the panade its own industry. recovery.
Since the January 1er, the Asian giant's gate is closed to 24 solid waste categories, including some plastics, paper and textiles, a measure announced only six months earlier by Beijing, which advances ecological grounds.
This redrawing of the global waste market is proving problematic for American and European industrialists, used to seeing a China eager for raw materials to absorb most of their waste for recycling, and who have very little time to turn around.
"It's an earthquake" and "we always have the shockwave. This has put our industry under stress because China is simply the world's largest market for the export of recyclable materials, "says Arnaud Brunet, director of the International Recycling Bureau (BIR) based in Brussels.
The European Union (EU) exports half of its collected and sorted plastics, including 85% to China. The United States has sent to 2016 in China more than half of its exports of nonferrous metal waste, paper and plastic, 16,2 million tons.
What alternative solutions for rich countries?
"We will seek alternative solutions, try to identify new substitute markets, assuming they have the processing capabilities: we speak of India, Pakistan or Cambodia," suggests Arnaud Brunet.
But it could take time: "The processing capacity does not move like this overnight", and the immediate accumulation of waste, especially in Europe, is "a major risk," he warns.
With as "disaster scenario" the prospect that this waste is incinerated or placed in landfill.
In the United States, "factories are looking at how to store" their extra waste and "some are storing it in car parks or on outdoor sites," says Brandon Wright, spokesperson for the NWRA, the US waste and waste management federation. recycling.
A problem for Chinese recycling companies
The immediate impact is going to be devastating: according to "conservative" BIR estimates, global paper exports to China could plummet by a quarter between 2016 and 2018 and those of plastic collapse by 80% in two years, passing from 7,35 to 1,5 million tons.
But some are more reassuring: "We have worked for years to develop in India, Vietnam, Thailand, and even Latin America," says Brent Bell, a manager of Waste Management, North America's first rebreather. household waste.
"The recent investments of several American paper manufacturers allow us to move (waste) to these alternative markets," says Bell, interviewed by NPR radio.
The Beijing ban also poses a thorny problem for Chinese recycling companies, which are highly dependent on Western waste.
"It will become difficult to work," said Zhang Jinglian, owner of a plastic waste processing company, Huizhou Qingchun. More than half of its "raw material" is imported and its production will be reduced by "at least a third," he told AFP, saying he had recently separated from a dozen of employees.
The repercussions are even more drastic for the company Nantong Heju, in Jiangsu (east): "We stop our activity and now seek to reconvert ourselves," says an official at AFP.
The Chinese decision could eventually have the positive effect of strengthening the reprocessing sectors.
The EU unveiled on Tuesday its strategy to reduce the use of single-use plastics, with the goal that all such packaging is recyclable by 2030.
Only 30% of Europeans' plastic waste is recycled at present. The rest ends up incinerated to produce energy (39%) or discharge (31%).
"We should use this decision to challenge ourselves and ask why we Europeans are not able to recycle our own waste," says Commissioner Frans Timmermans.