China to WTO: Scrap plastic imports banned by year-end

By STEVE TOLOKEN    
http://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20170718/NEWS/170719892/china-to-wto-scrap-plastic-imports-banned-by-year-end

China told the World Trade Organization (WTO) July 18 that it will ban imports of scrap plastics and other “foreign garbage” by the end of the year, officially taking a step that had been widely rumored in the industry.

The move drew quick criticism from a recycling industry trade group in the United States, the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), which said it would be “devastating” to the global recycling industry and cost thousands of U.S. jobs.

ISRI said the ban would include most scrap plastics, including PET, PVC, polyethylene and polystyrene, as well as mixed papers and slag.

China’s government said it was taking the action to protect public health and the environment.

“We found that large amounts of dirty wastes or even hazardous wastes are mixed in the solid waste that can be used as raw materials,” China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection said in a notification to WTO. “This polluted the environment seriously.”

“To protect China’s environmental interests and people’s health, we urgently adjust the imported solid waste list, and forbid the import of solid wastes that are highly polluted,” it said.

Washington-based ISRI said the move could cause severe economic harm in the United States.

“If implemented, a ban on scrap imports will result in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs and closure of many recycling businesses throughout the United States,” ISRI President Robin Weiner said in a statement.

ISRI immediately relayed its concerns to the U.S. Trade Representative and the U.S. Department of Commerce, and briefed U.S. officials ahead of the July 19 U.S.-China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue in Washington.

The association said one-third of the scrap recycled in the United States is exported, with China being the largest market. That includes 1.42 million tons (3.1 billion pounds) of scrap plastics, worth an estimated $495 million, out of $5.6 billion in scrap commodities exported from the United States to China last year, it said.

“Recycled materials are key inputs into the production of new, usable commodities for the use in value-add production,” ISRI said. “The trade in specification-grade commodities — metals, paper and plastics — between the United States and China is of critical importance to the health and success of the U.S. based recycling industry.”

The step had been rumored. ISRI leaders said at a mid-June news conference, after returning from a trip to China, that there were serious rumors of a ban on scrap imports, starting with plastics. That echoed earlier comments from Chinese plastics industry officials.

In a related development, a Chinese plastics recycling group said that a month-long crackdown on plastics recyclers that began July 1 had resulted in inspecting 888 factories by July 14. That’s about half of the 1,792 factories licensed to import waste plastics.

Related Articles in this Blog

Panama exports its plastic waste to Costa Rica.

https://apronadpanama.blogspot.com/2016/03/francisco-rivas-rios.html

The Plastic Recycling Market in Panama (updated).

https://apronadpanama.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-plastic-recycling-market-in-panama.html

Panama imports all ... also hazardous waste (PCB)

Francisco Rivas Ríos.

apronad@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/apronadpanama/

 

The polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) (chemical compounds formed by chlorine, carbon and hydrogen) were in use without restrictions between 1929 and 1978 in transformers and electrical equipment’s. His use in transformers owes to his qualities as cooling and insulating.

The first disastrous event happened in 1968, for a consumers' massive poisoning of rice with oil contaminated with PCB in Japan. From this moment, they began the studies relative to his toxicological characteristics.

After the studies, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), they qualified the PCB as probably carcinogenic I humanize.

For such a motive, they began a series of regulations in different countries and in international organizations. Today the PCB is considered one of four more dangerous substances of the world.

Two possibilities exist of that the oil dielectric that contain the electrical equipment’s, in use or disuse, escapes to the environment:

Explosions or fires of the transformers and in general electrical equipment’s. After a fire, the particulate matter issued to the atmosphere. In this case, the PCB it transforms in a chemical product named dioxin. The dioxins are the most harmful substances that are known. They are five million times more toxic that the cyanide and there has been verified that they are carcinogenic.

Accidental spillages and losses of the electrical equipment’s that are in use, in disuse or during his transport.

Once liberated to the environment the PCB it can cause cancer, besides disorders in the immunological, reproductive and nervous system.

The immunological disorders. It was verified human beings who consumed oil of contaminated rice acquired cancer.

Effects on the reproductive system. The weight of the baby diminished on having been born and they diminished the indexes of fertilization and the rate of birthrate. Effects on the nervous system.

Disorders in the endocrine system. The level of the hormone diminishes thyroid, which is fundamental for the normal growth and development.

With the ratification of the Agreement of Stockholm, Panama he acquired the following commitments:

To eliminate the PCBs at the longest in 2025. For these effects, it must identify, label and withdraw from use equipment’s with mas 0.005 % of PCB and volumes superior to 0.05 liters. 

The recovered PCB will have to treat and be eliminated at the longest since 2028.

While the authorities of the Ministry of Health of Panama (MINSA for its acronym in Spanish), struggled to identify and store the contaminated dielectric oil, Costa Rica exported these hazardous wastes to Panama 19,7 million metric tons, with a value of US $ 13,8 million in the period 2003-2010.

 

From 2011, Exports of oil contaminated with PCBs are not recorded from Costa Rica. However, they have the Continued imports of waste oil have although continued imports of “Product: 271099 Other waste oil".

ANEX

TWENTIETH MEETING OF THE FORUM OF MINISTERS OF ENVIRONMENT FOR LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN, CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA

 28-31 MARCH 2016

Decision 8. Chemicals and Waste

Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions

“Recalling the decisions adopted at the respective meetings of the Conferences of the Parties to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, and the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade, in May 2015;

Recognizing the work undertaken to strengthen coordination and cooperation among the chemicals and waste conventions and SAICM;

Reaffirming the need to increase the technical and scientific capacity of the countries of the region, including the needs related to the inclusion of new chemicals in the Conventions, and acknowledging the support provided to Parties within the region and sub-regions through the Basel and Stockholm Convention Regional Centres, as well as the support provided by their hosting countries;

Welcoming the Special Programme to support institutional strengthening at the national level for implementation of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, the Minamata Convention and the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals;

Decide

1.   To reiterate the need to strengthen, in collaboration with international organizations and other relevant stakeholders, the financial and technical capacity of the Basel and Stockholm Regional Centres network in Latin America and the Caribbean, to facilitate the effective delivery of capacity building, technical assistance and technology transfer to support implementation of the chemicals and waste conventions, and where appropriate, the Minamata Convention on Mercury.

2.   To welcome the progress achieved to date in relation to coordination and cooperation among the Secretariats of the chemicals and waste conventions, and to further encourage countries within the LAC region to ensure that effective coordination and cooperation at national and regional levels is fully achieved.  

3.   To urge countries to increase their individual and collective efforts to cooperate on the prevention, minimization and recovery of hazardous wastes and other wastes, in accordance with the Basel Convention Cartagena Declaration, as well as on the control of illegal traffic of hazardous waste and chemicals.

4.   To welcome the widening of the area for chemicals within the Global Environmental Facility to continue increasing the funds until the seventh replenishment and to continue work on the financing of projects that generate co-benefits for the different conventions on chemicals and waste.  

5.   To pay special attention to the needs of landlocked developing countries towards ensuring the sound management of hazardous wastes, particularly in its transboundary transport to final disposal sites”.