On 1 January 2018 the Chinese Government brought into force a ban on imports of plastic waste. On average the UK was sending up to 500,000 tonnes of plastic waste to China every year for recycling, making it the top export destination for UK plastic waste, but this has now stopped.
As a result Councils across the UK have already been left with huge build ups of plastic waste at recycling plants. Despite the ban coming into force in January, many UK businesses stopped the shipment of plastics to China in the Autumn due to fears it would not arrive prior to the ban coming into force.
Simon Ellin, Chief Executive of the UK Recycling Association expressed his concerns: ''We have relied on exporting plastic recycling to China for 20 years and now people do not know what is going to happen. A lot of [our members] are now sitting back and seeing what comes out of the woodwork, but people are very worried... You can already see the impact if you walk round some of our members’ yards. Plastic is building up and if you were to go around those yards in a couple of months’ time the situation would be even worse.''
When questioned on the impact of the China Waste ban, the Environment Secretary Michael Gove said: ''I don’t know what impact it will have. It is ... something to which – I will be completely honest – I have not given it sufficient thought.''
In December Michael Gove had announced a four point plan for tackling plastic waste which focused upon cutting the total amount of plastic in circulation, reducing the number of plastic types in use and improvements in recycling.
Some hope that in the long term the ban by China will provide the perfect opportunity for the UK to develop its recycling infrastructure, but in the mean time as waste builds up it causes huge issues for local councils and the UK waste industry.
A spokesperson for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said that the government was taking steps to tackle plastic waste from the ban on plastic microbeads and the introduction of the carrier bag charge. They said: ''We recognise more needs to be done to protect our environment from the scourge of plastics, and have launched a call for evidence around deposit reward and return schemes for plastic bottles and other drinks containers.''
