Liu Hua of Greenpeace in Beijing is thrilled: The Chinese government has triggered a "global shockwave", he says. Finally, Müsseder rest of world is questioning its current consumer model, which based only unlimited growth with limited resources.
What happened? China is once more thunder. A total of 24verschiedene recycled materials may not be exported to China since January 1 – including UnsortierterPlastikabfall, recycled paper, old CDs and old textiles. The reasoning of Chinese: DerMüll is too dirty and too dangerous. The government wrote to World Trade Organisation to protect environment and human health.
The radical cut is part of National Sword Strategy. China wants to build its own recycling economy and no longer act as a worldwide dump. The EU Commission's attempt to negotiate a transitional period of several years has failed in December.
With decision, China is once again taking absurdity of previous recycling practice into eyes of rest of world. For so far liefdas business like this: The Germans are separating rubbish, just by paper and glass, it is almost made of sorts. DieRecyclingwirtschaft is pleased: better separation, higher resale value alsRecyclingmaterial. Previously poorly sorted are mainly plastic waste. They refore land in waste incineration plant or are exported abroad.
China had established itself as most important waste importer in recent years. 56Prozent of all plastic wastes worldwide end up in China via ship. The United States and Japan are among largest exporters of unsorted plastic waste. Germany and Great Britain are also far ahead. European Member States alone export 87 percent of all plastic waste to China. There rubbish is partially still sorted by hand and n used for production of VonKunststoffen. Or he'll be burned. Environmentalists fear that this will happen in plants without modern filtration techniques.
Lack of transparency in China"It is unclear Wasgenau is happening with rubbish that is exported to China," cites Dasbritische Greenpeace magazine uneard Piotr Barczak from European Environment Bureau. The EU legislation foresees that exported waste must be Standardsrecycelt to EU law. "But because of lack of transparency and Verfolgbarkeitkann, it is also to be burned, buried or Umweltstandardsrecycelt to bad."
The consequences of import ban, which has only been valid for a few days, are already apparent. A representative of federal environment Ministry speaks of "tangible changes in European and German recycling markets". The German Kuststoffexporte to China had fallen by two thirds, says industry service Euwid. Every year, Germany sends around 760,000 tonnes of plastic waste to China, mainly foil-polyethylene and pet – i.e. old plastic bottles. For European waste Management industry, import material "already MassiveAuswirkungen", says Peter Kurth, president of Federal Association of German Ensorgungswirtschaft (BDE). Nor sources deutscheRecyclinghöfe over. But industry is looking for alternativeAbnehmer in or Asian countries like Vietnam, Malaysia or Thailand.
So where does trash go when simple solution – export – is eliminated? There are few alternatives: recycling, incineration or landfill. Dieheimischen waste incineration plants are already due to good economy and growing Müllimporteausgelastet. Incineration is also eineschlechte solution given material value and carbon footprint. Landfilling is even worse, and finally verbrauchtdas precious surface and environmental gases are released.
Date Of Update: 07 January 2018, 12:02
