中国禁止进口洋垃圾 英国着急了……
本月,中国正式启动洋垃圾入境新规,这一消息让英国废物回收业界不知所措。因为过去英国每年运往中国50万吨废料,现在终止,英国没有能力处理如此大量的废料。如何脱离危机?英国政府目前也没招。 Experts predict growing chaos in the United Kingdom as materials build up at recycling plants around Britain following China's global ban on importing millions of metric tons of plastic waste. Simon Ellin, chief executive of the UK Recycling Association, a group that represents more than 80 UK recycling organizations, has called for urgent action, saying his members are already seeing lower-grade plastics pile up. China was the main destination of the world's recyclable plastic but, since Monday, Beijing has banned 24 types of imported waste, including plastic and mixed paper. The move was part of the Chinese government's campaign against "foreign garbage", which it has described as harmful to the environment and public health. Ellin said the ramifications of the ban are already apparent in some of his members' yards. "Plastics are building up," he said. "If you were to go around those yards in a couple of months' time, the situation would be even worse." Previously, the UK exported almost two-thirds of its total waste to China with UK businesses shipping more than 2.7 million tons of plastic waste to China since 2012, according to data from environmental group Greenpeace. Ellin said many UK recyclers stopped shipping plastic to the world's second-largest economy in the autumn because of fears it might not arrive before the deadline. "We have relied on exporting plastic recycling to China for 20 years and now people do not know what is going to happen," he told the Guardian newspaper."A lot of (our members) are now sitting back and seeing what comes out of the woodwork, but people are very worried." He warned that local authorities' recycling efforts in the UK will bear the brunt of the ban in the short term. "If it no longer pays for our members to take this waste and sort it once it has been collected by councils, then that might stop," Ellin said. "This might mean that councils no longer collect recycling in the same way. It could be chaos, it really could." 目前,英国正在思考垃圾的未来去向,短期做法是将废物出口到越南和印度等国家,但这些国家能够接收的规模有限,如果采取焚烧的方式处理,还将面临一系列环境问题。 The recycling business will now have to look to alternative destinations, such as Malaysia and Vietnam for their exports. But some industry experts believe China's decision to shut its doors could be an opportunity for the UK to develop its recycling infrastructure. 西蒙-埃林对BBC称:“(中国的禁令)对我们而言是巨大的打击……我们行业的游戏规则被改变了……我们国内根本就没有这个市场。这意味着我们的行业将发生重大变化。” 废纸处理公司IWPP的一名员工表示:“我一点都不夸张地说,行业供应链将受到极大的影响。” Ellin said there is a need to look at the "entire system from producing less, to better, simpler design, to standardized recycling". |