China has renounced the status of the main garbage superpower in the world and completely stopped importing municipal solid waste (MSW) from abroad. This was reported by the Ministry of Environment of China.
The ban on the import of solid household waste into the country came into force on January 1. However, it does not cover part of the steel scrap, which will continue to be imported for further processing and use.
China started importing trash such as plastic, paper and metals as recyclable materials back in the 1980s. As a result, the country has become the largest importer of municipal solid waste in the world. By 2016, China imported more than half of the planet’s solid waste. The practice, on the one hand, contributed to the rapid economic growth of the country, providing its enterprises with raw materials, and on the other hand, it hit the environment, since not all enterprises were engaged in processing and disposal in good faith.
In 2017, a mass audit revealed that more than 60 percent of Chinese businesses violate environmental laws, writes Xinhua . The country’s authorities began to consistently prohibit the import of new categories of household waste and decided to completely abandon the import garbage from 2021. It is expected that the complete ban will not only turn the PRC’s attention towards recycling its own waste, but also force states such as the United States and Great Britain, which sent their waste to China, to think deeper about their own consumption culture.