Why China needs to import so much plastic from Britain for recycling

A few days ago, a foreign news agency reported itself as saying that there is a widespread export of garbage to China from the UK and other developed countries. Behind these large-scale domestic waste exports is a huge economic interests: developed countries deal with domestic waste products, enterprises effectively save processing costs and earn additional profits; domestic illegal traders to use this to seek dirty interests, the harm is innocent people. Workers are picking waste plastics from foreign garbage. Foreign garbage repeatedly knocked at the door of China In mid-January 2007, CCTV's Economic Information Broadcast quoted a report by Britain's Sky TV that Britain, known as "Europe's garbage bin", dumped a large amount of waste into China every year, which has caused serious pollution to the environment in some parts of China. CCTV reported that in the town called "Lianjiao" in southern China, foreign garbage is transferred and piled up here, and the world's largest freighter Emma Maersk is responsible for transporting garbage here. The Emma Maersk, the world's largest cargo ship, is responsible for transporting garbage to the town. As the ships keep arriving, the mountain of garbage keeps getting higher and higher. The town's mountain of garbage includes 200,000 tons of waste plastic and 500,000 tons of waste paper and cardboard. Workers walk through the piles of garbage, picking out the waste plastics, melting them down and reusing them. The gusts of smoke from the combustion always irritate people's nasal passages, and the chemical waste from the combustion is discharged directly into the neighboring river, which is dyed black. The workers' monthly salary is only more than 500 dollars. Even people in Britain were shocked to learn about the cause and effect of this incident. A British citizen said: "My first reaction was really speechless, we classify garbage according to the distinction between recyclable and waste, but I didn't realize that these toxic wastes ended up in China." In fact, as early as two years ago the local British news media revealed the fact that it was dumping large amounts of garbage into China. The British newspaper The Guardian reported on March 28, 2005, that the Dutch port of Rotterdam intercepted a British cargo ship bound for China with more than 1,000 tons of camouflaged household garbage on board. Officials from the Dutch Ministry of Environment and Development said that Britain is using the port of Rotterdam, Europe's largest port, to dump large quantities of household garbage into China. A customs official revealed that the 54 containers intercepted were filled with household garbage such as food waste, waste plastics, beverage cans, old clothes, waste batteries and used handbags. A spokeswoman for the Dutch Ministry of Environment and Development believes the incident is just the tip of the iceberg. Germany's Daily Mirror newspaper reported almost simultaneously that the air in Guiyu, in the Shantou region of Guangdong province, smelled like burning plastic. Guiyu is located in a county where about 100,000 people make a living by dismantling used computers and various electrical parts from all over the world. Guiyu has become a dumping ground in the information age. The people of Guiyu are not officially recognized for their work in dismantling computers. So how much garbage does Europe export to China? According to statistics, 700,000 tons of plastic and cardboard are legally exported to China from the UK alone every year. According to a survey conducted by the European "Imperator Consulting Organization", 20% of the garbage products exported from Europe to China every year are unsegregated garbage, which are illegal exports. According to a survey conducted by the Dutch authorities, the actual percentage could be as high as 70%. In other words, most of the garbage products exported from Europe to China are really garbage. While the numerous media reports triggered by the large amount of foreign garbage entrained in medical gifts from the United States to China have not yet been forgotten, the Japanese media concerned went to China to investigate and found that the main target of Japan's garbage exports was also China, accounting for about 90% of the total exports. According to reports, Japan exports as much as 10 million tons of garbage overseas each year, equivalent to 10% of total foreign trade exports. This garbage is mainly industrial waste. Since China does not yet have advanced treatment technology, the garbage shipped from Japan to China is having an adverse impact on China's environment. For example, when Guangdong and other places dispose of used computers from Japan, they incinerate printed circuit boards, which results in serious air pollution. Local residents suffered from headaches, eye pain and other symptoms. Perhaps the people of China would still be kept in the dark if it were not for the exposure of a heinous story in the relevant media about the importation, screening and processing of foreign garbage! Dirty interests **** the same body Many people do not understand why the developed countries will continue to export foreign garbage to the outside world? In fact, the answer is very simple, it is because they are developed countries, they produce more garbage, the cost of treatment is also higher, so they will find ways to transport the garbage outside the country to deal with. Children playing beside piles of foreign garbage. It is reported that the British families of domestic waste "production" up to more than 27 million tons per year, in the European Union countries topped the list. On average, each British family dumps more than half a ton of garbage every year, but its domestic garbage recycling rate is only about 20%, which is far from the 50% recycling rate required by the European Union. At the same time, the cost of waste disposal in the UK is also very expensive. Taking the commonly used landfill waste method as an example, the cost per ton is ￡12. The UK spends ￡2.6 billion a year on waste collection and disposal, equivalent to ￡120 per household. In order to save this high expense, many waste disposal companies in the UK are willing to ship waste to developing countries at a price of more than ￡100 per ton. Surprisingly, the large-scale export of garbage to China has brought huge additional benefits to the British companies concerned. According to British officials, those companies exporting garbage to China can get money at both ends. Local governments in the UK have to pay these garbage disposal companies 35 pounds per ton, while the garbage companies simply load the garbage into containers without classifying it, saving a large amount of money on garbage disposal. In addition, they also get export revenue from Chinese importers. Sources close to the matter reveal that the profits here are quite staggering. Not only in the United Kingdom, unscrupulous companies in other developed countries also export garbage to China in order to get money from both ends. For example, Japan enacted the Container Packaging Recycling Law in 1995, and recycling companies can receive a hefty subsidy of about 50,000 yen (about RMB 3,850 yuan) per ton levied from beverage manufacturers and others, and since then it has gradually shaped the current domestic recycling system for polyester beverage bottles in Japan. Although Japan's domestic recycling rate increased, but Japan's tighter control of waste, especially for waste plastics treatment costs are higher. It is understood that, within Japan, waste plastics are subject to strict treatment, can not be reused waste plastics must be incinerated, and to charge a very high cost of waste disposal. China is very close to Japan, transportation costs are not high, while China has a large demand for waste plastics. Therefore, most companies choose to resell the collected waste plastics to China, where disposal costs are lower, to make a profit. People can't help but ask, people avoid the garbage, why do we have to spend money to import it? The fundamental reason is that foreign garbage has a market in China. It is understood that the direct import of foreign garbage, after simple processing, can obtain considerable profits. Due to the soaring price of crude oil, foreign plastic waste has now become the "meat and potatoes" Since 2004, the price of various synthetic resins soared. At present, the domestic market, the price of polypropylene has risen to 12,000 yuan / ton, ABS is more than 15,000 yuan / ton mark. At the same time, the price of imported waste plastics is relatively stable, the current price of polypropylene scraps and waste materials in the 4,000 yuan / ton or so, waste ABS plastic is also in the 6,000 yuan / ton or so, the price is only 1/4 of the new material to 1 / 3. Due to a number of waste plastics in the treatment, but still maintains good processing performance and physical and chemical indexes, coupled with import tariffs and transportation and other costs are lower in the domestic processing and sales profits are considerable. Domestic processing and sales profits can be considerable. At the same time, there is still a strong market demand for recycled plastics in China, so with the soaring price of synthetic resins, more and more companies are importing large quantities of waste plastics to reduce costs. In the view of these Chinese companies, as long as there is a constant supply of goods, they have a good profit. Some British plastic waste recyclers said the Chinese company's agents can give up to 120 pounds per ton of mixed plastic bottles price, much higher than the price offered by British companies. According to industry insiders, a significant number of Chinese companies pay high prices but still can't actually buy the most valuable first-hand recycled materials. Usually foreigners take the first hand development of rich resources, China has become a cheap "processing plant" and "garbage disposal station", while in the processing and the formation of secondary pollution. According to a British plastic waste recycler, he is currently in contact with 300 companies, most of which are Chinese companies, every day there are three or four Chinese companies to call him to say that they want to buy his plastic waste. And these Chinese companies don't care if the quality is good or bad or if it will pollute the environment, and no one checks what is being shipped there. A worker reads a book on a pile of foreign garbage. As a result, in the waste plastic import business that Chinese companies are hungry for, some countries' unscrupulous enterprises dump foreign garbage into China in the name of waste plastics, a move that not only seriously pollutes the domestic environment, but also impacts the processing and application industry of waste plastics, casting a thick shadow on the development of this industry that is supposed to benefit the country and the people. The key problem is that China imports a large number of waste plastics from abroad on the one hand, and on the other hand, the domestic production of 6 million tons of plastic waste each year, but basically are not recycled, "white pollution" is serious. The causes of this problem can be summarized as follows: China's public awareness of renewable resources is insufficient, without classification of randomly discarded garbage; due to the lack of preferential policies and financial support, recycling of waste materials, the general operating scale of enterprises is small, backward technology; recycling of renewable resources recycling technology is seriously insufficient investment in the development of a lack of industry standards and related regulations. Refuse the flow of drugs outside the country China to promote and protect the normal can be used as raw materials for the utilization of waste materials, under strictly limited conditions to allow the import of recyclable materials from abroad. However, some foreign unscrupulous enterprises have exploited the loopholes of the policy and entrained foreign garbage in the exported wastes, or even directly misrepresented foreign garbage as recyclable materials. At the same time, we cannot deny that there are indeed a few cases of domestic enterprises conspiring with foreign enterprises to import foreign garbage on their own initiative. British cargo ships carrying garbage to China. A small benefit can do a great deal of harm, and the importation of foreign garbage harms the country and its people. The purpose of foreign export of foreign garbage is to transfer environmental pollution. It is said that 1/5 of the world's waste catalysts flow into China. Although metals such as nickel and molybdenum can be easily refined and recovered from these waste catalysts, some small and medium-sized enterprises engaged in underground recycling do not have the appropriate safety equipment, and they casually discharge effluent with carcinogenic or other toxic substances, thus seriously polluting the environment. Waste paper imported by China has also had pest problems. More than 55,000 flies were found in containers of paper packaging for fruit juice imported by China from Spain, due to the residual fruit juice in the packaging. Rubber worm larvae have also been found in the coffee left in the waste paper imported from the United States. At present, our country has formed a closely divided industrial chain with foreign garbage as the source, and it also brings the reproduction of some deformed products. 2002 foreign condoms and leather bands proliferated in the market, which made some women physically and psychologically harmed. In addition, the way of invasion of foreign garbage is mostly through illegal ways, so it greatly stimulates the smuggling behavior. Foreign garbage is more harmful to human body than general counterfeit goods, especially machine and electronic products. At the same time, foreign garbage mostly leads to the circulation of diseases, especially products related to life, which have a greater impact on health. Originally, many used plastic products, such as mechanical and electrical shells, plastic bottles, CD-ROMs, plastic buckets, plastic boxes, etc., can still be used again as raw materials for plastics processing after disinfection, cleaning, crushing, and re-pelletizing, and the performance indexes of some waste plastics are even not lower than that of the ordinary synthetic resins of new materials. According to national regulations, waste plastics can be produced products include: packaging pallets, thermal insulation and fireproof building materials, blown film bags and adhesives, etc., but absolutely does not include plastic edible utensils. However, the relevant industry insiders have revealed that, due to the competition is too fierce, the use of waste plastic made of raw materials to reduce the cost of some disposable tableware production enterprises to achieve profitability of the secret weapon. 2004 Beijing Municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce jointly with the Beijing Environmental Protection Tableware Joint Organization of the disposable plastic tableware market in Beijing to carry out random inspections, the sampling rate of compliance is only 40%. In response to the flow of poisonous and harmful foreign garbage, China has been taking strict preventive and control measures. 1996, China's "Law on Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Wastes" came into force, and the new "Criminal Law" which came into force on October 1, 1997, newly set up the crime of illegal disposal of solid wastes from abroad and the crime of unauthorized importation of solid wastes, and the "Amendment of Criminal Law" which was adopted on December 28, 2002, one ****8 articles, which are related to the problem of foreign garbage, accounted for 3% of the total number of articles. the issue of foreign garbage accounted for three articles. Although China has basically formed a legal system for the control of solid and hazardous wastes, there are still a number of shortcomings in the current system for the management of imported waste materials. As there are legal gaps in the utilization and dismantling of waste, a large amount of waste enters China every year by means of circumvention. As soon as possible to amend the law, from the system to make up for the flaws in the management, has become a pressing task. At the same time, the implementation of the circular economy must be strengthened, the establishment of a number of renewable resources processing parks, the processing of renewable resources to implement park management. Fully understand the importance of the circular economy, and strengthen policy support and create a favorable development environment, accelerate the industry's technological inputs and the development of relevant industry standards, which is the fundamental solution. Related Links >> Simple identification of recycled plastics In the use of a variety of plastics recycling methods for waste plastics before reuse, most of the plastics need to be sorted. As the plastic consumption channels are many and complex, some post-consumer plastics and difficult to distinguish them through the appearance of simple, so it is best to label the plastic products on the material varieties. China has formulated GB/T16288-1996 "Plastic Packaging Products Recycling Marking" with reference to the material variety marking proposed and implemented by SPE. Although the above marking method can be utilized to facilitate sorting, there are still many unmarked plastic products in China, which makes sorting difficult. However, there are still many unmarked plastic products in China, which makes sorting difficult. In order to categorize different varieties of plastics for recycling, it is necessary to master the knowledge of identifying different plastics, and the following is a simple method of identifying plastics: Plastic Appearance Identification By observing the appearance of plastics, it is possible to preliminarily identify the major categories to which plastic products belong: thermoplastic plastics, thermosetting plastics or elastomers. General thermoplastics have crystalline and amorphous two categories. Crystalline plastic appearance is translucent, opaque or opaque, only in the film state is transparent, hardness from soft to horny. Amorphous generally colorless, in the absence of additives for the whole transparent, hardness from hard to horny rubber-like (at this time often add plasticizers and other additives). Thermoset plastics are transparent when they do not contain fillers. Elastomers have a rubbery feel and a certain tensile strength. Identification of plastics by heating The heating characteristics of the above three types of plastics are also different, and can be identified by heating. Thermoplastics soften when heated, easy to melt, and become transparent when melted, often from the melt to pull out the wire, usually easy to heat bonding. Thermosetting plastics heated until the chemical decomposition of the material, to maintain its original hardness does not soften, the size of the more stable, to the decomposition temperature carbonization. Elastomers when heated until the chemical decomposition temperature, does not flow, to the decomposition temperature material decomposition carbonization.