China’s decision causes plastic pileup

CHINA’S decision to stop accepting plastic waste from other countries is causing plastic pileups around the globe with many countries under pressure to slow the accumulation of the ubiquitous material, scientists in the US say.

University of Georgia scientists have sought to quantify the impact of the Chinese import ban on the worldwide plastic waste trade finding that many nations will need to find a home for more than 122 million tonnes of plastic by 2030.

China’s ban came into effect on December 31, 2017 and the stockpiling trend figures are set to worsen, the scientists say.

Countries such as Australia, the United States, Japan and Germany have long sent their plastic recyclables to China, and now China does not want to be the world’s plastic dumping ground any more.

China has taken more than 116 million tonnes of the material since 1992, the equivalent of the weight of more than 300 Empire State Buildings, the study showed.

The change is forcing countries to rethink how they deal with plastic waste.

They needed to be more selective about what they chose to recycle, and more fastidious about reusing plastics, Amy Brooks, first author on the study, said.

In the meantime, more plastic waste was likely to get incinerated or sent to landfills.

‘‘This is a wakeup call.’’