Plastic recycling¶

What "recycling" really means today¶

Recycled, in first world countries, mostly means shipped to China and south east Asia!

a. Exporting % of total plastic waste exports from top 10 exporting countries.

b. Between 1988 to 2016, China imports 78 percent of global plastic exports. c. Plastic waste exported to china from top 10 exporting countries 2016: i. Total: 7.13m - 7.35m tonnes

d. Amount of plastic china imports 2010-2016 (stayed consistent) i. Waste they created: 61m tonnes ii. Imported waste: 7.35m tonnes iii. 7.35/300 = 0.0245 = 2.4% of world plastic waste imported iv. Total plastic waste to handle : 68m tonnes. v. 68.35/300 = 0.2278 = 23% of total world plastic waste

e. The annual volume of globally traded waste plastics is around 15 Mt, less than 5% wt. of the new plastics production in 2012.

f. How much plastic waste does each country actually recycle in house: i. US, Japan, Germany…. ??? (Research required)

g. For exporters, cheap processing fees in China meant that shipping waste overseas was less expensive than transporting the materials domestically via truck or rail, said Brooks.

b. The top world importers are: China at $6.1B and its SAR Hong Kong at $1.65B, followed by the USA, the Netherlands and Belgium.

c. Europe (EU-27) collectively exports almost half of the plastics collected for recycling (3.4 Mt, worth of €1.7B)

1) corresponding to 12% of the entire post-consumer plastic waste arisings.

Restrictions in China on the import of scrap plastic, along with lower energy and virgin resin prices, pose challenges for plastic recycling, in particular for those in the industry selling scrap plastic or covering the cost of collection, sorting and processing material to create marketable post-consumer resin (PCR).