China’s decision to ban on solid waste imports
Another piece of waste legislation which came into force at the start of 2021 is China’s ban on imports of solid wastes, including plastics, paper products and textiles. China has been an important final destination for these materials for the last 40 years, but its policy for limiting imported recovered materials began back in 2013 and the most recent decision to ban solid waste imports reflects the Chinese authorities’ commitment to promoting more recycling of domestic material and reducing the nation’s reliance on imports.
China’s decision to ban solid waste imports will have far-reaching consequences for waste operators who have, until now, relied on China as an end market for their material. This latest move follows on the back of other countries, including Malaysia, Thailand and India taking steps to ban imports of plastic waste and, in some countries, the import of mixed papers.
As with the Basel Convention Plastic Waste Amendments, failure to comply with China’s new solid waste import ban may result in hefty fines for both the waste carrier and the importer set to between RMB 500,000 (equivalent to approximately US$71, 000) and RMB 5 million (equivalent to approximately US$710, 000). Customs authorities will also order the solid wastes to be returned to the place of export for disposal.
Those waste operators who historically depended on exporting this material to China – or to other countries that have also now banned these materials – will now have to either find new end markets for their solid waste materials or invest in sorting technology to achieve the exceptionally high purity rates that China requires for solid wastes in order to grant an import license.
Let’s look at the example of waste paper products. China has historically been the largest waste paper importing market in the world, but now it will only grant import licenses for waste paper that has a purity level greater than 99.5%. This means that those operators who wish to continue exporting their waste paper to China will have to increase and invest in their sorting, deinking and recycling efforts.
This can be achieved by taking advantage of the latest advances in sensor-based technology for paper recycling to sort non-paper from paper and also produce high purity end fractions of different paper grades, such as brown cardboard, printed cartons, plastic-coated cartons, dyed paper, newsprint and four-colour printed (CMYK) paper. Sensor-based sorting can enable waste operators to continue exporting their material to China or, should they prefer, find alternative in-country or overseas routes to market where their material will command a much higher market price as a result of its purity levels.
The European Green Deal
Coinciding with China’s decision to ban all imports of solid waste, Europe is also taking further steps to address the issue of plastic pollution by introducing new EU shipment rules which prohibit the shipment of unsorted plastic waste to foreign countries.
Under the European Commission’s European Green Deal, which came into force on 1st January 2021, there are new rules governing the export, import and intra-EU shipment of plastic waste. These new rules ban the export of plastic waste from the EU to non-OECD countries, other than ‘clean’ plastic waste that is sent for recycling.
As is the case with the Basel Convention Plastic Waste Amendments and China’s import ban on solid wastes, these stricter regulations mean that waste operators will no longer be able to easily export their plastic waste unless they can generate high purity single stream plastic fractions. So, we can see, once again, where sensor-based sorting technology can help by enabling waste operators to achieve the purity levels required under the new rules – purity levels that are far higher than those achieved by any other sorting technique.
An evolving legislative landscape
The regulations I’ve explored in this article are just a few of the latest changes that will directly affect waste operators. The next significant piece of legislation due to come into force during 2021 in all EU member states is the ban on single-use plastics. With a global customer base, Tomra Sorting actively monitors all legislative changes, both at a national and international level. This puts us in a strong position to support our customers as these changes unfold. Keeping informed of any changes that are to be introduced enables us to adapt our technology and processes to ensure they are fit for purpose, futureproof and, most importantly, help our customers to thrive in a challenging and competitive international market.
