China is infamously known for pollution and waste that have plagued everyone from cities to the countryside. Citizens sometimes walk through trash piles and rivers clogged with waste on a daily basis. Fish dies, people suffer diseases- it's time to wake up! Through bioaccumulation, that waste ends up right in our stomachs. It's revolting. The reason why China deals with these problems is that China itself produces tremendous amounts of waste, and also imports waste. Yes, it actually takes in trash from around the world. But things are changing.
Last year, China banned 24 varieties of solid waste to be imported, which also includes paper. Now, it is banning more types of steel like auto parts and ship parts. This really sucks because it is forcing everyone to think of new ways to recycle or degrade waste. These moves are altering the global supply chain. I mean, some 31% of America's waste is sent to China. This is a smart step for China but also messes up other countries who now have to impose new taxes and regulations on businesses.
It is a smart move for China because China itself must fix its domestic problems relating to trash. I mean this picture speaks for itself:
In a country like China where censorship and regulations are high, it's surprising the lax restrictions on trash and filth. But of course, with heightened leadership, the government is taking more drastic changes and hopefully, within the next decade, there will be a significant reduction in waste that will surpass waste produced by a growing population. The government plans to invest 200 billion yuan ($31.07 billion) in the next few years.
Guiyu (贵屿), the city in China known as the world's recycler of waste (especially electronic waste), has seen drastic changes in the past five years. While conditions are extraordinarily cleaner, a surprising turn of events is that workers and trash.recycling businesses are seeing less income with less foreign trash. But, it is good that people are seeing safer conditions, because people would take apart these electronics by hand and handle toxic materials and risk hurting themselves.
In fact, there is surprisingly a black market for trash. People will smuggle trash into China just to be able to recycle it and make money.
It sucks, but it's about time that countries started taking responsibility for their own trash. We always hear this talk about "Reduce Reuse and Recycle", but it's just not working enough. The recycled paper usually only makes up 10% of new paper products, and with the growing number of people and subsequently growing amount of waste, it's just not cutting it. People just don't care enough about recycling or making the conscious effort to reduce waste. Not too man people are finding ways to eliminate trash in a clean way, so we're just stuck here.
China is continuing its grandiose statement of not relying on other countries. China wants to focus on itself and rebrand itself as a true superpower. Think about it: what kind of superpower would willingly take in others trash and act like some kind of dumpster? We are seeing this trend where other countries are at the mercy of China and how it has the ability to shake up the world.
http://money.cnn.com/2018/04/20/news/china-trash-recycling-environment/index.html
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-environment-waste-insight/china-trash-towns-cleanup-bolstered-by-import-ban-idUSKBN1FD043
https://www.chinawhisper.com/pictures-a-river-of-garbage-in-wenzhou/
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