Clear The Air News Blog Rotating Header Image

July, 2017:

China to WTO: Scrap plastic imports banned by year-end

Clear the Air says: HKG Govt includes materials that arrive here from overseas countries, which are then re-exported to China, as ‘LOCAL RECYCLING’

In a previous China ‘OPERATION GREEN FENCE’ many containers of such import/re-export materials got stranded here and the ENB had to drastically republish its ‘local recycling rates’

Now we can see ‘OPERATION GREEN FENCE 11’ = ‘OPERATION NATIONAL SWORD 2017 ‘is imminent
https://resource-recycling.com/plastics/2017/02/15/china-announces-sword-crackdown-illegal-scrap-plastic-imports/

Let’s see how this China initiative affects Hong Kong’s ‘local recycling’ rates where the Government relies on 80 year old scavengers as its recycling policy, which is to ship what they gather to China and sell it.

http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/waste/guide_ref/stat_wt_type.html
http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/waste/guide_ref/stat_wt_cty.html

Hong Kong’s apathetic ENB has no PLAN A =source separation of waste and infrastructure to collect same, yet intends PLAN B =to charge for waste, without first enacting PLAN A, meaning recyclables will get tossed and charged for

We hope Christine LOH enjoys reuniting with the clean air of Santa Monica which has such recycling legislation, Green Bin free collection of food waste at kerb-side and a ZERO WASTE POLICY

https://www.smgov.net/Departments/PublicWorks/ContentRecycling.aspx?id=45134

Where is our ZERO WASTE Policy in Hong Kong ? well, it’s called an incinerator.

https://www.zerowasteeurope.eu/2013/09/the-story-of-capannori-a-zero-waste-champion/

https://www.zerowasteeurope.eu/about/principles-zw-europe/
http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/live/waste-and-recycling
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0734242X09337659?journalCode=wmra
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/05/prweb14358068.htm

———————————————————————————

http://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20170718/NEWS/170719892/china-to-wto-scrap-plastic-imports-banned-by-year-end
China told the World Trade Organization July 18 that it will ban imports of scrap plastics and other “foreign garbage” by the end of the year, officially taking a step that had been widely rumored in the industry.

The move drew quick criticism from a recycling industry trade group in the United States, the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, which said it would be “devastating” to the global recycling industry and cost thousands of U.S. jobs.

ISRI said the ban would include most scrap plastics, including PET, PVC, polyethylene and polystyrene, as well as mixed papers and slag.

China’s government said it was taking the action to protect public health and the environment.

“We found that large amounts of dirty wastes or even hazardous wastes are mixed in the solid waste that can be used as raw materials,” China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection said in a notification to WTO.

“This polluted the environment seriously.”

“To protect China’s environmental interests and people’s health, we urgently adjust the imported solid waste list, and forbid the import of solid wastes that are highly polluted,” it said.

Washington-based ISRI said the move could cause severe economic harm in the United States.

“If implemented, a ban on scrap imports will result in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs and closure of many recycling businesses throughout the United States,” ISRI President Robin Weiner said in a statement.

ISRI immediately relayed its concerns to the U.S. Trade Representative and the U.S. Department of Commerce, and briefed U.S. officials ahead of the July 19 U.S.-China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue in Washington.

The association said one-third of the scrap recycled in the United States is exported, with China being the largest market. That includes
1.42 million tons (3.1 billion pounds) of scrap plastics, worth an estimated $495 million, out of $5.6 billion in scrap commodities exported from the United States to China last year, it said.

“Recycled materials are key inputs into the production of new, usable commodities for the use in value-add production,” ISRI said. “The trade in specification-grade commodities — metals, paper and plastics — between the United States and China is of critical importance to the health and success of the U.S. based recycling industry.”

The step had been rumored. ISRI leaders said at a mid-June news conference, after returning from a trip to China, that there were serious rumors of a ban on scrap imports, starting with plastics. That echoed earlier comments from Chinese plastics industry officials.

In a related development, a Chinese plastics recycling group said that a month-long crackdown on plastics recyclers that began July 1 had resulted in inspecting 888 factories by July 14. That’s about half of the 1,792 factories licensed to import waste plastics.

The China Scrap Plastics Association said in its July 17 announcement that Chinese media were reporting that 590 of those factories were found to have rule violations, with 349 put under investigation for those violations.

It said with 383 factories had their production suspended and 53 were closed, and that factories with violations could have their import permits suspended for one year.

China’s WTO filing said the import ban on plastics would apply to products with HS codes 3915100000, 3915200000, 3915300000, 3915901000 and 3915909000.

Air pollution is the ‘tobacco of the 21st century’, warn experts

Bad air is the source of ‘huge illness which is entirely preventable if we take the issue seriously’, IPPR researcher says

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/air-pollution-tobacco-21-century-quality-breathing-health-problems-lungs-experts-ippr-a7846761.html

Air pollution caused by burning fossil fuels is the “tobacco of the 21st century”, an expert has warned after a report found some cities in northern England were breaching legal safety limits by up to 150 per cent.

It is estimated that the air we breathe causes about 40,000 premature deaths a year in Britain, mainly affecting children, elderly people and those with respiratory conditions.

The report, by the Institute for Public Policy Research North think tank, noted that all but two of 11 air quality reporting zones in the North exceeded legal limits for nitrogen dioxide, according to the Government’s own figures.

Some areas, including Merseyside and Teesside, were up to 150 per cent above the legal limit for the pollutant, which inflames the lining of the lung and reduces immunity to infections such as bronchitis.

Within the next few weeks, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is expected to publish its third attempt at an air quality plan designed to bring pollution to within legal safety limits.

Its previous attempts have been widely regarded as half-hearted at best with environmental group ClientEarth twice winning court orders forcing Ministers to produce a more effective plan.

Darren Baxter, a research with IPPR North, compared the debate over what to do about air pollution to the realisation that smoking was harmful to health about 50 years ago.

“This is the tobacco of the 21st century and every single preventable death is a failure of government action,” he said.

“Michael Gove [the Environment Secretary] must get a grip on this crisis which is killing literally thousands of children and adults a year.

“This is a huge illness which is entirely preventable if we take the issue seriously and take the sort of big actions that governments took on policy for smoking in the 1960s onwards when the public health effects became clear.

“So for this it means clean air zones, phasing out diesel and huge expansion in electric cars.”

Mr Baxter said that “too often” the focus of concern about air pollution had been on London.

“But the reality is that it’s poisoning thousands in our regional cities too,” he said.

“Michael Gove must show that the Government is not prepared to sit on its hands while up to 40,000 people are killed every year from dirty air.

“We need to see radical plans to ditch diesel, introduce incentives for electric cars and bring in Clean Air Zones in our major cities.”

The report called for an “explicit pledge” to phase out diesel cars and “formally investigate even more ambitious targets” after the publication of the Air Quality Plan.

A network of new clean air zones should be created to cover “all major urban areas in the UK”.

“The potential socio-economic and environmental gains from the realisation of a cleaner, more efficient transport system are enormous,” the report said.

But it warned the UK risked slipping behind other countries that are embracing cleaner forms of transport.

“There could be much to learn from abroad; other countries are beginning to overtake the UK in ushering in a new mobility system. Germany, in particular, is undergoing an explicit mobility transition (Verkehrswende); the UK could and should do the same,” the report said.

A Defra spokesperson said: “We are firmly committed to improving the UK’s air quality and cutting harmful emissions.

“That’s why we have committed more than £2bn since 2011 to increase the uptake of ultra-low emissions vehicles and support greener transport schemes, and set out how we will improve air quality through a new programme of Clean Air Zones.”

Mai Po Nature Reserve Infrastructure Upgrade Project

Download (PDF, 2.35MB)