The Chinese waste crisis

The impact on the European waste industry is therefore very significant. The drain is definitively blocked. European governments must turn this crisis into an opportunity to reform waste policy so that it contributes more to a healthy living environment.

The export of waste to China took off in the 1990s. Most plastics were sorted by hand in China on thousands of small waste dumps. Sometimes the plastic was recycled and returned to Europe in the form of cheap trinkets. For a long time, China tolerated the drawbacks of this waste, such as local pollution of land and rivers and poor working conditions amidst toxic substances. This came to light through the documentary Plastic China.

China's economic growth means that they no longer have to make such sacrifices. Consumption is also rising within China, and the government wants to get more recycling (350 million tonnes by 2020) out of those domestic streams. Environmental pollution and public health also played a role in the decision.

China warned the World Trade Organisation in July 2017 that it would start a campaign against yang laji, foreign waste. The Chinese import ban started on 1 January 2018, bringing an end to decades of import practices.

The Chinese ban covers many types of plastic (PET, PE, PVC, PS, and "other" plastics), textiles, unsorted mixed paper and other materials. 24 streams, and certainly a number of plastics, no longer enter the country. The requirements are strict. Mixed plastics, but also sorted monostreams, are no longer accepted. This concerns plastics from households, but also from businesses.

With this, China is continuing a trend that started earlier. In 2013, the "Green Fence" programme imposed quality standards on imports of recyclable material. The more recent "National Sword" campaign targeted illegal waste imports.

What are the consequences in Europe and the Netherlands?

In 2016, 46% of all plastic waste exports in the world still went to China.

Europe exported the most waste to China. Europe exported 2.9 billion tonnes of plastic waste to China. That is 40% of European plastic waste. But at the same time, a part of what we call recycling here is sent to cement kilns. If we do not count that, then at least half of the plastics in Europe were sent to China for recycling. The outlet to China was handily used to make European recycling figures look artificially better.

Belgium and the Netherlands are among the world leaders when it comes to the export of plastic waste. Both countries each account for 4 per cent of the global trade in plastic waste. They therefore export more waste than countries like France, Spain, Canada or Mexico (Harvard University, The Atlas of Economic Complexity). Belgium and the Netherlands are also in the top 5 plastic waste importers (2014 study).

Concrete problems on the ground

In the short term, the import ban will lead to three main problems: more incineration, more landfilling and more oil going towards plastics.

We are already seeing plastics being stockpiled. At the beginning of December 2017, mountains of waste plastic film had already built up at Flemish intermunicipal waste associations.

The Flemish Public Waste Agency (OVAM) does not have precise figures for Flanders regarding transport to China, but estimates that it involved 40,000 to 50,000 tonnes annually.

It is becoming more expensive for intermunicipal waste associations to get rid of certain plastics. Some are even failing to find buyers. Recycling companies and intermunicipal waste associations are going through a particularly difficult period, according to Christof Delatter, who monitors waste policy for the Association of Flemish Cities and Municipalities (VVSG).

The numerous burning waste mountains in Poland are also linked by the Polish government to the Chinese import ban.

Can we process all this waste in Europe ourselves?

Particularly low-grade plastics, which are harder to use and for which there is less demand, yield less and less. Because China offered a solution for recycling certain plastics for so long, there is no recycling capacity in Europe. We have too little processing capacity for it in Europe, and getting rid of it is becoming very expensive. So, it is being stockpiled.

The Netherlands is one of the largest importers and exporters of plastics. Many plastics leave for China via Hamburg, Rotterdam and Antwerp.

In the Netherlands, collection will continue for a while, but the plastics will be stored in hangars, which will become increasingly full. There is a risk that the decision will be made to incinerate them, or to export them elsewhere, hoping they will be recycled there.

In many places, this is an incentive to build extra incinerators or to landfill the plastics. Which is a total waste.

Reform of waste policy in Europe

On 17 January, the European Commission came out with its Plastic Strategy and on 28 May with the ban on a number of single-use plastic products and the proposal to move to 90% selective collection of PET bottles, for example by introducing deposit schemes. These are good first steps. But more will be needed to protect the oceans and the environment in Europe from the effects of waste.

These were valuable raw materials that were being exported. But because this involves hundreds of different types of plastics, it is very difficult to process properly.

We must reform and reorganise recycling in Europe, Recycling Netwerk director Rob Buurman explains on VPRO Bureau Buitenland in response to the Chinese import ban.

1. The best approach is still to tackle the problem at source.

1.1. We need to do with less packaging. Production must move away from disposable and evolve much more towards reusable products.

1.2. We must eliminate the reflex to produce plastic junk. McDonalds, plastic straws, over-packaging, balloons, plastic cups, disposable plastic bottles, and an excess of plastic packaging consisting of many different colours and different materials must be banned.

2. In addition, policy must focus much more on high-quality recycling. We have been saying it for years, and now we see that businesses are also starting to say it.

2.1. In the Netherlands, everything is still collected together. Much of it is sent to Germany, eventually heading to China. We won't be able to get rid of that stuff anymore. We must move towards streams that are much easier to recycle.

2.2. The design of packaging is therefore also important. At present, producers of plastic packaging do very little to make their packaging more sustainable. The environmental impact of the packaging itself must go down.

2.3 One important tool is to ensure that plastics are mandatorily made up of a significant proportion of recycled plastics. This gives recycling companies the mandate to supply better material and producers will also bring better packaging onto the market because it is important for themselves that this packaging is recycled again later.

For PET, which is used in trays, for example, the CO2 footprint of the material can go down by 80% if recycled plastics are used. But at the moment, with the exception of bottles and a few packaging items, almost none of the packaging you can buy in AH is made of recycled material. New oil is therefore constantly needed for this. In fact, the government should say: from now on, we are going to mandate that producers use recycled materials for packaging.

2.4. In addition: very strong fee modulation. If your packaging or product is not recycled or is only downcycled, you should pay a much higher fee for it.

2.5. Extending deposit return systems to small plastic bottles (and cans) is also becoming more urgent. They will then be recycled much better and will no longer cause damage to the environment. At present, only a modest proportion of plastic bottles are properly collected and recycled. (Many cans are also lost and are not turned into new cans). Deposit schemes ensure much more recycling. In Germany, even 98%.

Sounding the alarm on waste policy

There is certainly urgency to take measures against the plastic flow now that the Chinese drain is definitively blocked. Deposit schemes can be introduced quickly. The reform of broad waste policy will take more time. Therefore, there really should be no more delay with all kinds of studies.

Governments in the Netherlands, Belgium and the rest of Europe can see this Chinese waste crisis as a threat or a crisis. But we believe that the government should turn this into a great opportunity for European business. Making the transition to the circular economy can create extra jobs in recycling, engineering and research. In this way, the crisis can be turned into an opportunity.

Related media: Al Jazeera, Global waste industry rocked by China import ban, 24/09/2018