China plans to prohibit imports of post-industrial scrap plastic by the end of the year, according to documents published today by the country’s environmental department.
Colin Staub has been a staff writer at Resource Recycling since January 2017. Before that he worked as a reporter at the weekly newspaper in Newberg, Oregon, and has been a freelance writer at other publications in Portland. He can be contacted at [email protected]
China plans to prohibit imports of post-industrial scrap plastic by the end of the year, according to documents published today by the country’s environmental department.
Many recycling associations are preparing for their biggest gatherings of the year, and three group leaders recently explained how China-related market disruptions will be tackled at their events.
Swedish apparel giant H&M last year saw a notable drop in its consumption of recovered PET for polyester applications. But the company did report progress on marine debris, depolymerization and other initiatives.
China has issued its latest round of import permits for scrap materials, and approved volumes remain particularly low on the plastics side.
Trade tensions between the U.S. and China have come closer to directly impacting the plastics recycling industry.
North Carolina-based Plastic Revolutions is expanding to separate certain resins from mixed plastic bales, a response to growing supply as China’s import policies take hold.
The U.S. has become a focus of investment for a small yet growing portion of the Chinese scrap processing industry. Backers of two in-development operations note they are looking for regulatory stability and a strong supply of recyclables.
Researchers from the University of Illinois have developed a non-toxic method for recycling polycarbonate plastic, which is often used in electronics and other products but has been difficult to cost-effectively divert from the waste stream.
The 2018 spending bill approved by lawmakers and signed by the president last week contains good news for the U.S. EPA and its recycling-related programs: The agency avoided significant budget cuts that were proposed last year.
Chinese officials have accused the U.S. of hypocrisy for denigrating the scrap imports ban amid a brewing trade war between the two nations.