Plastic waste sent for recycling is dumped in poorest countries

PLASTIC waste sent for recycling in the UK is being dumped and burned after being shipped to other countries by Dutch middlemen, green charities fear.

The Government intends to ban plastic waste exports to poorer countries outside of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), but more than 80 green groups have written to Thérèse Coffey, the Environment Secretary, warning that only a total ban will be enough to stop the practice.

The letter, coordinated by Greenpeace, points out that only 9 per cent of UK plastic waste exports are being sent to NON-OECD countries.

They said the Netherlands may have become a “proxy” country for UK household plastic recycling to reach poorer countries, such as Vietnam and Indonesia, since a ban was announced. British waste exports to the Netherlands increased by more than 60 per cent between 2020 and 2021, making it the top destination for UK plastic exports, according to Plastic Soup Foundation, the Dutch charity.

Netherlands plastic exports to Latin America, Asia and Africa more than doubled over the same period.

“It’s scandalous that the UK continues to dump so much of its plastic waste on the rest of the world to deal with,” said Nina Schrank, senior campaigner for plastics at Greenpeace UK. “By shipping our waste, at the expense of the taxpayer, to proxy countries like the Netherlands, the UK Government is shirking their responsibility to properly deal with our rubbish.”

Most of the new waste exports have been sent to Indonesia and Vietnam, where plastic has been documented as being dumped and burned.

Indonesia has been described as a “dumping ground” for plastic waste from the West, with reports of it being burned in huge fires or sold to communities who may use it for fuel, creating toxic smoke. In 2021, the Netherlands exported almost 70 million kilos of plastic waste to Indonesia – about a tenth of the country’s entire recycling capacity.

Sian Sutherland, the co-founder of A Plastic Planet designers, said only a total ban on would be truly effective. “At the moment we risk sending our plastic detritus to the world’s poorest countries by proxy, with ‘safe’ OECD countries such as the Netherlands exporting British waste to the Global South – washing our hands with waste imperialism of the worse kind,” she said.

A Department for Environment spokesman said: “We have been clear that we are committed to banning the export of plastic waste to NON-OECD countries.”