介绍： China and the world discuss the environment

Developing countries turn away from plastic waste imports

An amendment to the Basel Convention will staunch the global flow of plastic waste,

writes Tang Damin



正文选段：

Plastic waste burns all night in the small Malaysian town of Jenjarom, causing locals ...

介绍： China and the world discuss the environment

Developing countries turn away from plastic waste imports

An amendment to the Basel Convention will staunch the global flow of plastic waste,

writes Tang Damin



正文选段：

Plastic waste burns all night in the small Malaysian town of Jenjarom, causing locals to cough and lose sleep. Businesspeople came to the area promising to develop an “environmental protection industry”. Instead they brought piles of waste for incineration.



Malaysia is the world’s biggest importer of plastic waste. It replaced China after the country announced a ban on the trade in 2017. But like nearby Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, Malaysia is now facing its own environmental pressures. A recent amendment to the Basel Convention may help end the practice of richer countries exporting their plastic waste to less developed nations.



Academics estimate that since the invention of plastic the world has produced 6.3 billion metric tons of plastic waste. A mere 9% of that has been recycled. Twelve percent has been incinerated and 79% has ended up either in landfill or elsewhere in the natural environment. A failure to stem the growth in plastics production would mean that by 2050 the ocean will contain more plastics than fish by weight, according to an Ellen MacArthur Foundation report.Once carried into the ocean by rain and rivers plastics degrade into microplastics, which marine life consumes, sending it through the food chain and into our bodies.



But relying on the Basel Convention to control the cross-border transfer of plastic waste will not solve the crisis. Instead, the culture of disposability that is a feature of modern lifestyles must be addressed. If we cannot stop the overuse of disposable plastic packaging and boost global sorting and recycling capacity, then all that will be achieved is a slight shift of the problem back from developing nations.



The amendment to the Basel Convention has dispelled the notion that plastic waste can simply be exported away. When it comes into force in 18 month’s time some countries may be forced to reckon with their own inability to manage their plastic waste. It may also force a revolution in how plastics are used.


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