Our ‘recycled plastic’ dumped in landfill all over the world
A HUGE amount of plastic collected from British homes and sent overseas for recycling is actually being dumped on sites across the world.
The rubbish bearing familiar British names ended up discarded or buried in Poland, Hong Kong and Thailand, an investigation found.
Every year Britons throw 22million tonnes of household waste into the bin. But while the UK’s target is to recycle half of that by 2020, recycling rates have stagnated at some 44 per cent.
Britain does not have the plants and infrastructure to recycle its own plastic waste so tens of millions of pounds is spent sending it overseas. Much of it went to China but its government recently imposed drastic restrictions, leaving traders looking for other countries.
A documentary by Sky News found shipments of plastic wrapped in Chelmsford Council recycling bags sitting in a Hong Kong yard, destined for landfill.
Tony Wong, the Chinese trader who imported the plastic, expected to receive only clear bottles. In fact, the load was so contaminated it was too expensive to sort and recycle.
The documentary, Dirty Business, found the shipment has been registered as recycled by the exporter, meaning it counts towards Britain’s recycling targets, artificially inflating the figure.
At a plastic-strewn site near Bangkok waste included Tesco and Asda packaging and a Whitworths raisins bag, which had apparently been there for over a year.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove told the programme that Britain must produce less waste and also process more of it at home.