China’s plastic problem: lack of circular economy stifling ‘necessary’ reform of high-pollution industry
- As the world’s largest manufacturer and exporter of plastic, China is in urgent need of more efficient methods of plastic recycling and reuse, new study finds
- China’s existing plastic-packaging policy still lacks compulsion and uniformity, and it is costing billions of US dollars a year
China lacks substantial impetus in its push to implement a circular economy for its plastics industry, leaving the root cause of plastic pollution largely unchecked, industrial experts and research have implied.
China’s plastic-packaging industry should move to an efficient and resource-saving circular economy from the current linear economic model, according to a report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Tsinghua University that was released last week.
This report, in line with the country’s goal of creating a waste-free society during its 14th five-year plan period from 2021-25, called for focusing on source reduction, the enhancement of the waste-plastic-packaging recycling system, and the development of a high-quality recycled-plastics market.
“We are at a special time when extreme weather events across the country are causing concern, but in the near future the fight against plastic pollution will receive the same attention as climate change in China,” said Li Jinhui, a professor with the School of Environment at Tsinghua University, and executive director of the Basel Convention Regional Centre for Asia and the Pacific.
Confronting the current plastic pollution and economic losses caused by the plastic-packaging industry, the report said that transforming the plastics recycling economy is of urgent importance for China.
