Recycling and trade in waste plastics in China

Abstract

In the last three decades, plastics have rapidly gained importance in Chinese national life. Consumers and industrial users have expanded their demand for plastics by an estimated animal growth of 20 percent. The coming decade is a crucial period for the Chinese plastics industry in meeting this demand. At the same time, the rapidly increasing waste burden of plastics has to be minimised This requires intense efforts on the part of the formal and informal waste management sectors as well as the plastics recycling industry. The Chinese recycling sector can control the burden of solid waste by expanding the market for recovered materials, thereby narrowing the gap between the demand and supply of plastics resources. Trade plays an important role in this endeavour.