China prohibits the import of 24 types of waste and creates panic!

Environmental impact of end of life products: plastics, chemicals, vehicles, agri-food marketing. direct recycling and recycling (upcycling or upcycling) and reuse of good items for the trash!
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China prohibits the import of 24 types of waste and creates panic!




by Christophe » 21/01/18, 10:16

Finished since January 1er 2018: China has sharply reduced its imports of waste ...

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.
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Re: Recycling of English plastics in China




by Christophe » 22/01/18, 19:17

Same info on the Echoes: https://www.lesechos.fr/monde/chine/030 ... 147004.php

By banning the import of certain types of waste, China, the world's leading destination for recycling, poses the risk of a "disaster scenario" on rich countries.

China is blowing a wave of panic on the planet recycling. Indeed, since the January 1er, Beijing has decided to close its doors to 24 categories of solid waste, including some plastics, paper and textiles, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, scrap metal and household, etc. And this ban, which redraws the global market of waste, worries the exporting countries.

"It's an earthquake. 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. Accustomed to the fact that "the factory of the world" absorbs most of their waste, American and European industrialists are caught off guard.

The European Union (EU), which exports half of its collected and sorted plastics, including 85% to China, is looking for alternatives to India, Pakistan and Cambodia. But assuming these countries have the right capacity, this transfer will take time. And in the immediate future the accumulation of waste, especially in Europe, is "a major risk," continues Arnaud Brunet.

A devastating impact in the United States

For the United States, which sent more than half of its exports of non-ferrous metal waste, paper and plastics to China in 2016, 16,2 million tonnes, "the immediate impact will be devastating", observes Brandon Wright, spokesperson for the NWRA, the US Federation of Waste and Recycling, interviewed by AFP.

But others 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, the first North American recycler garbage. "The recent investments of several American paper manufacturers allow us to move (waste) to these alternative markets," he told NPR radio.

Europe must boost its reprocessing sectors

According to "conservative" BIR estimates, global paper exports to China could plummet from 25% between 2016 and 2018, and plastics from 80% plummet in two years, from 7,35 to 1,5 million tonnes. According to the NGO Friends of the Earth, a quarter of the waste electrical and electronic countries of the North are exported to the countries of the South - China, India, Nigeria and Ghana mainly, where the costs of treatment are ten times less important.

"We should use this decision to challenge ourselves and ask why we Europeans are not able to recycle our own waste," said Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President of the European Commission. It is true that only 30% of Europeans' plastic waste is recycled - the rest ends up incinerated to produce energy (39%) or landfill (31%).

The opportunity now presents itself to boost the reprocessing sectors.

with AFP

Jean-Michel Gradt
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Ahmed
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Re: Recycling of English plastics in China




by Ahmed » 23/01/18, 12:24

China faces an urgent need to restructure a model that no longer works. This is normal since the 2 competitive advantages of the beginning (low wages and not taking into account negative externalities) have reduced to a trickle and margins have melted. For some time now, it has been reorienting its efforts towards the adoption of minimum environmental standards (a compromise between the cost of modifications and the clipping of the intolerable level). Similarly in the energy sector, there is redeployment to more sources of renewable energy (who said green? :D ) and the shutdown of the most inefficient coal plants.
Therefore, the new requirements for the import of raw materials from recycling are consistent with this concern to reduce at the source of the main nuisances (it is not a question of suppressing them, but only of allowing to continue to increase the production without the pollution reaching excessive levels).
Many articles present this as a chance for French industry, provided that... It is precisely in this last restriction that the problem lies: unless it is largely subsidized by these operations, the low value of these wastes does not allow them to be treated properly and this is obviously what explains the massive use of 'export.
Now, there is going to be a standoff between China, which has a vital need for these raw materials, and the European countries which are seeing the prices collapse on the one hand and the mountains of waste on the other hand accumulate. .. : roll:
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Re: Recycling of English plastics in China




by Christophe » 25/01/18, 12:58

A mini file background that shows that this Chinese ban can be a chance for the European economy (and the planet), as long as you allow good will!

Example applied in Brussels and Wallonia, but applicable everywhere else:

https://www.lecho.be/dossier/lappeldesx ... de/9975375

(..)
Idea

Let's reverse the flow and develop a plastic waste processing industry in Belgium in general and in Wallonia in particular. Sorting technologies are improving. We can now sort most types of plastic used in packaging. Let's invest in state-of-the-art sorting centers, as well as recycling factories in the Walloon Region and Brussels.

Let us become the "smart trash can" of Europe. By treating ourselves not only these 424.000 tonnes of plastics, but also part of the flows from other developed countries now refused by China. That is to say, part of these 7 million tonnes today blocked or on the move. Let's go one step further: today, large PMC-type waste streams leave Belgium for Germany or the Netherlands, where they are better sorted and recycled. Let's build the ad hoc installations in Wallonia to reverse this trend as well.
(..)
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Re: Recycling of English plastics in China




by Christophe » 25/01/18, 23:26

First visible effects in Germany: http://www.lemonde.fr/pollution/article ... 52666.html

I am rather stunned: did the Chinese take this decision unilaterally or are the politicians too keen not to have anticipated this ban?

I predict a MONSTRUEUSE increase in the cost of waste collection in Europe ...

Ah everything is probably already well calculated in this sense by the politicians: it is believed that there is a crisis (but we already have all the solutions) to legitimize an increase in taxes!

It's really a nice skewer uh ... garbage ... : Cheesy:

Germany does not know what to do with its plastic packaging. Since January 1er, China has banned the import of certain waste.

In recent days, in Germany, a smell of bad conscience emanates containers that fill the backyards of buildings. The Germans, very used to scrupulously sorting their garbage in five different bins, have discovered the reverse side of recycling. Indeed, since January 1er, China has closed its borders to the garbage of the world.

Germany is Europe's third largest producer of plastic packaging, behind Ireland and Estonia. In total, the countries of the Union consume 25 million tons annually, of which only 30% is recovered for recycling. In its strategy against plastic waste, presented Tuesday 16 January, the European Commission has set the goal that by 2030, all plastic packaging used on the European market are recyclable. Brussels also wants to see a decrease in the use of single-use plastics and microplastics. "If we do not change the way we produce and use plastic, there will be more plastic in our 2050 oceans than fish," said First Vice President Frans Timmermans. The only long-term solution is to reduce plastic waste by recycling and reusing it more. "

But China's stop of waste imports shows the limits of recycling, even in a country where sorting has long been a habit, like Germany. According to Eurostat, every German uses 37,4 kilograms of plastic packaging a year - 20% more than the European average - of which only 49% is recycled. This percentage should progressively increase to 63% in 2019, according to a law voted in 2017. The country has developed its recycling industry since the 1970 years.

Problem: Although the recycling rate is increasing, the actual production of waste does not decrease. With the growth of trade ...
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Re: Recycling of English plastics in China




by Ahmed » 26/01/18, 11:55

I believe that you are lending too politic intentions to the politicians, whereas this decision of China only corroborates the necessity and urgency of a restructuring. Of course, at this hot potato game Europe will bear the brunt of the negative externalities that China no longer wants to assume for us because it can no longer afford it.
The worst criticism that can be made to capitalism is that it is not profitable, that is to say that it fails to meet its own operating criterion, except when it cheats ... The Chinese are in the process of realizing this reality.
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Re: Recycling of English plastics in China




by Christophe » 26/01/18, 13:34

I was generally said to be too naive and dreamy ... would I have become a "good" man? : Cheesy: : Cheesy: : Cheesy:

I still do not have the answer if it was planned or not ... Anyone know?
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Re: Recycling of English plastics in China




by sicetaitsimple » 26/01/18, 13:48

Christophe wrote:
I still do not have the answer if it was planned or not ... Anyone know?


A priori the notification was made in July 2017.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/dive_static/di ... 071817.pdf
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Re: Recycling of English plastics in China




by Christophe » 26/01/18, 13:56

Oh yes ... 6 months ... it's nothing! So much to say, on the time scale of politics, it was not planned!

Thanks for looking!
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Re: China prohibits the import of 24 types of waste and created panic!




by Christophe » 06/02/18, 15:49

Here is a news with some information and nice links: ban on the import of our household waste by China
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