Councils to meet for plastic waste ‘crisis’ talks

COUNCILS across Wales will meet later this month to discuss a looming crisis stemming from China’s decision to stop importing plastic waste.

There are fears the decision will make it more difficult for local authorities to meet tough recycling targets.

Since 2012 more than 2.7m tonnes of recyclable plastic has been exported to China from the UK.

Now, however, the Chinese government has decided that much of the waste is too hazardous to recycle.

Mixed paper, plastic bottles and 24 types of solid waste will in future not be admitted to China, and Welsh councils, like their counterparts elsewhere, will have to find alternative means of disposal.

Nigel Dix, an Independent member of Caerphilly council, said: “This is very worrying, and unless a solution is found quickly there could be an increase in environmentally damaging methods of disposal like incineration.”

A spokesman for the Welsh Local Government Association said: “Local authorities gather a range of materials from households and then sell or pass them on to reprocessors for recycling. Some of this takes place in Wales.

“Likewise, there are facilities in Wales or elsewhere in the UK dealing with other materials, such as paper, metals, glass and plastics. Some of the companies that take materials from local authorities throughout the UK do export materials to be recycled. China has been an important destination for these materials.”

The spokesman said: “The impact on local authorities of a fall in the price of waste plastic will depend on the terms of the contractual arrangements they have negotiated.

“In the meantime, it is important that the progress made with recycling in Wales is maintained.”