CNBC: China Refuses to Be the Globe’s Trash Dump

The world’s largest importer of waste changed its mind and stopped taking in 24 types of scrap. China’s ban on waste imports went into effect this year and Europe, Japan and the United States are scrambling: Europe considers a tax on plastics, Britain looks for other export destinations, and the United States tries to convince China to reverse the ban. “China was the dumping ground for more than half of the world's trash before the ban and, at its peak, was importing almost 9 million metric tons of plastic scrap a year, according to Greenpeace,” reports Lee Yen Nee. Some of that waste was used in manufacturing – like microbeads, furniture and other products made out of recyclables – and preparing trash as a manufacturing input requires energy. “China, now the second-largest economy in the world, has been doubling down on efforts to clean up its air, water and land. Under President Xi Jinping, the country has shuttered tens of thousands of factories that contributed pollution, pushed for greater use of renewable energy and became a green finance giant.” Environmentalists support the ban for forcing other countries to work on reducing waste though the rest of the world had little time to prepare for reuse, conserving or regulation of packaging. – YaleGlobal