WHY IS ASIA RESPONSIBLE FOR SO MUCH PLASTIC WASTE?
Massive population growth
Agricultural expansion
Increased sewage being released into the rivers and lakes
Mismanagement of plastic waste, including illegal dumping in rivers and tributaries:
• On average only 40% of waste is properly collected in China, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam
• Rural areas often have no waste collection services
• In urban areas, waste collection can’t keep up with increasing consumerism
• In highly urbanised areas and megacities, waste management systems suffer from high volumes of waste and a lack of use from citizens
• Open dump sites are often located near waterways. Litter is regularly washed out to the oceans
Foreign countries export waste to Asian countries,
even though the waste management and enforcement infrastructure in Asia is less developed – making plastic pollution more than just an environmental issue, but a social justice and health issue as well.
• The US and European countries have been selling and shipping millions of tonnes of plastic to China each year for decades. This all changed abruptly when Beijing imposed a ban on plastic imports starting January 1, 2018. With no place to put all of this plastic, recycling facilities in developed nations have no choice but to divert thousands of bales of recyclables to landfills and incinerators.
• According to Greenpeace, British companies have shipped more than 2.7 million tonnes of
plastic scrap to mainland China and Hong Kong since 2012.
• The US exports more than 13.2 million US tons of scrap paper and 1.42 million US tons of scrap plastics annually to China, according to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries.
• In 2016, China imported 7.3 million US tons of waste plastics from developed countries including the UK, the US and Japan.
• According to one of the most recent and comprehensive reports on global plastic waste by Jambeck, every year more than 400 million US tons of plastic waste is produced in the world, of which only 9% is recycled. (Some 79% of waste generated from plastic accumulates in landfills or in the environment, while 12% is incinerated.)