In general, the plastic waste flowed from high-income countries to medium- and low-income countries, and China alone imported nearly half of global plastic waste exports since 1992.
People talk about 'leakage,' but it's really a hemorrhage," said Jim Puckett, director of the Basel Action Network, a Seattle-based environmental nonprofit that tracks waste exported from the United States.
Now, answering a detailed questionnaire from the NYC Zero Waste Campaign, a coalition that seeks to nearly eliminate the waste exported by the city within 20 years, Ms. Fields has proposed yet another No. 2 slot: deputy mayor for planning and zero waste.
Simon Ellin, of the Recycling Association, says the tighter controls on contamination could mean some or all of the millions of tonnes of cardboard waste exported from the UK to China each year could be rejected and sent back.
The result has been more plastic waste exported to poorer countries like Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia, and far more going to incinerator factories in Europe, which contribute to greenhouse gases and are potentially detrimental for the health of people living nearby. .
The result has been more plastic waste exported to poorer countries like Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia, and far more going to incinerator factories in Europe, which contribute to greenhouse gases and are potentially detrimental for the health of people living nearby.
The scale of e-waste exported to Asia has previously been difficult to estimate.
Recycling factories across Asia are recovering e-waste exported from around the world, but discharging heavy metals and chemicals into local water supplies in the process.
Eradicating these substances from discarded products is difficult and costly, which is why much of the e-waste exported to the developing world under the pretence of being reused or refurbished ends up being dumped.
Table 6 shows the five largest industrial sectors in terms of wastes exported from Tokyo to other regions, and the amounts and types of transported waste.
