China’s import policy changes are straining recovered plastics export markets, particularly impacting mixed rigids. Recycling companies have been forced to stockpile and even landfill the materials, while numerous municipal programs have stopped accepting mixed plastics.
Organizations raising $150 million to prevent ocean plastics in Southeast Asia say the region will present challenges wholly different from those in the U.S. Two groups recently offered new details on the goals and logistics of the effort.
When it comes to scrap plastics exports, 2017 was a tale of two years, with China’s import restrictions altering global patterns for the material.
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Chinese authorities have issued the first five rounds of recyclable-material import permits for 2018. Compared with 2017, the country has allowed in substantially less recovered plastic and approved permits for far fewer companies across all material types.
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Nearly two-thirds of recyclables exported out of California have been bound for China in recent years, and as the Asian behemoth closes its doors to those imports, the state’s recycling industry is feeling the hit.
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A plastics reclaimer and exporter plans to close its doors, citing impacts from China’s import restrictions as a major factor in the company’s downfall.
Scrap plastic exported out of the U.S. is moving to Southeast Asia, where reclaimers are dramatically increasing purchases as China closes its doors to recovered materials. New figures illustrate that shift.
In Indonesia, the road to plastic marine debris prevention may be paved with, well, plastic.
Chinese officials have announced the first batch of plastic scrap import permits for 2018, and the volumes laid out in those authorizations represent a massive reduction from one year ago.
A representative from a European firm that has felt the direct impacts of China’s import restrictions on recovered plastic recently offered an inside look at the fallout from the unprecedented disruption to industry trade.