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from the start-selling-Cabbage^WGarbage-Patch-Kids? dept.
Few people consider used plastic to be a valuable global commodity. Yet China has imported 106 million tons of old bags, bottles, wrappers and containers worth $57.6 billion since 1992, the first year it disclosed data. So when the country announced last year that it finally had enough of everybody else's junk, governments the world over knew they had a problem. They just didn’t know exactly how large it was.
Now they know. By 2030, an estimated 111 million metric tons of used plastic will need to be buried or recycled somewhere else—or not manufactured at all. That's the conclusion of a new analysis of UN global trade data by University of Georgia researchers.
[...] As the industry matured and the negative effects on public health and the environment became clear, China got more selective about the materials it was willing to buy. A "Green Fence" law enacted in 2013 kept out materials mixed with food, metals or other contaminants. Exports consequently dropped off from 2012 to 2013, a trend that continued until last year, when the world's biggest buyer warned that its scrap plastic purchases would stop altogether.
[...] The world’s plastic problem has been building for decades. Since mass production began in the early 1950s, annual output has grown from about 2 million tons to 322 million produced in 2015, the authors said. Current production rates are exceeding our ability to dispose of the stuff effectively—and supply is expected only to grow. “Without bold new ideas and management strategies, current recycling rates will no longer be met, and ambitious goals and timelines for future recycling growth will be insurmountable,” they wrote.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Sunday June 24 2018, @12:12AM (1 child)
They already have that here in Oz. They make park benches and decking out of it. Trouble is that all the separation and processing to get sufficient quality make it cost about twice as much as good timbers like Merbau or Jarrah. There is also a laminated bamboo decking that is much superior, but costs about the same as the ugly plastic stuff.
That would certainly help recycling, but would be very limiting in the use we make of plastics. They don't use different plastics for fun, they use the cheapest one that can do the specific job. I think what we need is much improved robotic separation.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday June 24 2018, @05:06AM
I was just thinking how much I would like to buy some 4x6x8foot fence posts now. The old ones are rotten, and its gonna be a royal pain in the ass to change them out.
Instead of burying plastic that would last a century in the landfill, I would have sure liked to have had it holding up my fence.
Something like that would also allow me an option to cinder block when it comes to building anything half-buried.... like planters.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]