How much garbage do you have to produce in a day?
- Waste paper, beverage bottles, food packaging bags, residual food, discarded clothes and shoes and hats...
So how much garbage will the world's 7 billion people produce? The World Bank gave a data in the "Global Solid Waste Management in 2050" report: In 2016, there were 2 billion tons of solid waste generated worldwide, that is, on average People make 0.74 kg of garbage every day.
But such an average is not fair, because some areas have rich commodity goods, people have high incomes, and more garbage is produced.
According to the World Bank, high-income countries account for only 16% of the world's population, but they make 34% of the world's garbage. Among them, in Bermuda, Canada and the United States, each person's daily “production†of waste reached 2.21 kg; in contrast, low-income countries with a global population of 9% produced only 5% of the world's garbage.
Image source: World Bank report
On the other hand, 56% of the waste in low-income countries is food waste; in high-income countries, plastic, paperboard, metal, glass and other wastes can be recycled up to 51%.
He's arsenic, this honey.
Such differences have contributed to a global waste trade chain, and many developed countries export solid waste to developing countries for processing, recycling, and reuse. Although this has brought about certain economic benefits, it has also caused huge social and environmental costs for developing countries, and China has long been the largest importer of garbage.
However, starting this year, China has completely banned the import of 24 kinds of "foreign garbage" from abroad; in 2019 and 2020, the scope of banned imports will be further expanded.
Nowadays, more and more developing countries have joined the ranks of China. First, Malaysia and Vietnam have announced restrictions on the import of “foreign garbageâ€. Recently, Thailand has also decided to completely ban the import of plastic waste products from abroad since 2021.
Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam
Have said no to "foreign garbage"
According to Xinhua News Agency, the "Resolution of Imported Garbage Conference" held at the Prime Minister's Office in Thailand on November 2 decided that Thailand's imported plastic waste products should not exceed 70,000 tons in 2019 and 40,000 tons in 2020. Thailand will not be in 2021. Re-import plastic waste.
Since China’s 24 categories of “foreign garbage†have been shut out this year, many countries’ “explosive warehouses†have become the preferred destination for “foreign garbageâ€. According to statistics from the US Census Agency, Greenpeace found that half of the US plastic waste was exported to Thailand in the first half of this year, totaling more than 91,500 tons, 20 times that of 2017.
In June of this year, people found a whale body on a beach in Thailand. The whale had 80 plastic waste in its stomach. This incident has attracted the attention of environmentalists. They said that Thailand has been "plastic poisoned". It is. Since then, actions to reduce waste imports have been put on the agenda.
In addition, in May this year, Thai police found that many factories illegally imported and processed electronic waste. In mid-August this year, Thailand announced that it would stop importing 432 types of e-waste within six months.
The import of e-waste in developing countries is due to the extraction of precious metals such as gold, silver and copper from used electronic equipment; however, harmful substances such as lead, mercury and cadmium contained in the environment may cause environmental pollution.
It is also a Southeast Asian country, with Malaysia and Vietnam moving faster. In May of this year, a large amount of imported garbage made the port overwhelmed, and Vietnam announced that it would suspend the import of plastic waste.
In August this year, under the pressure of complaints and complaints from local residents, Malaysia withdrew the garbage import licenses of some factories.
According to the statistics of “Greenpeaceâ€, in the first four months of this year, the amount of plastic waste exported from the UK to Vietnam increased by 51%, and the amount of plastic waste exported from the UK to Malaysia increased more than twice.
China’s “warning†to the world
Global waste trade was formed in the 1980s. It was also at that time that China began to import large quantities of solid waste that could be used as raw materials.
In the global economic environment at the time, many people expressed support for the rubbish trade. They believe that for countries with low levels of productivity, importing waste can help boost the economy. However, they have intentionally or unintentionally ignored the environmental pollution brought to developing countries and the pressure on public health. At that time, some American research institutes even published an article saying: Rationally speaking, people in developing countries should be willing to bear the risk of environmental pollution, because this can give them higher income.
As developing countries pay more and more attention to the environment, as people become more aware of the cost of environmental pollution, the voice against the garbage trade will also rise.
From the World Bank scholars to the global media, China's ban on "foreign garbage" is called a "Wake-upcall", so that countries that export large-scale garbage begin to rethink: How should garbage be handled?
After losing the world's largest garbage market, many countries and regions began to find new ways for garbage. Some use the old method: to find the garbage market in other developing countries, and pass the pressure of environmental pollution to Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Poland and other countries.
But some places have begun to take steps to make changes. For example, the Australian Minister of Environment and Energy said in April that in order to solve the garbage crisis, Australia will invest in the construction of a waste incineration plant, and it is planned to achieve 100% recyclability of packaging materials by 2025.
In another example, in October this year, the European Parliament passed an overwhelming number of votes to pass a comprehensive ban on disposable plastic products. This means that by 2021, it will be hard to find disposable plastic products such as plastic straws and tableware in the European market. . For other disposable plastic products that do not currently have an ideal replacement, their use must be reduced by 25% by 2025.
Earlier, some analysts predicted that more countries would follow China and issue a “foreign garbage†ban. The CEO of the British Recycling Association believes that the ban is a good thing. On the one hand, it can force more funds into the development of waste treatment technology; on the other hand, it can also force the entire industrial chain from commodity manufacturing to garbage disposal to be updated.
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