California Must Stop Dumping Plastic Waste Abroad
San Jose Mercury News
Nick Lapis
Californians do their part to reduce trash and plastic pollution, dutifully sorting household waste into what they think is recyclable and what is not — and believing that when those blue bins are carted away, the contents are recycled responsibly.
But many Californians don’t realize that we export a mountain of our plastic waste to other countries.
According to U.S. Census Bureau data, California accounts for around 30 percent of total U.S. plastic waste exports — 503,000 tons in 2017. Until recently, much of this went to China.
But in 2017, China began heavily restricting plastic scrap imports to cut down on the pollution and health problems from trash created elsewhere. In 12 months, China’s imports dropped 99 percent.
A report from the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) — the result of a two-year investigation — and a data analysis by Greenpeace reveals how plastic scrap exports have been diverted throughout Asia. Countries including Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia are now chaotically receiving massive quantities of plastic waste from Western nations, more than local oversight and enforcement agencies can regulate.
Because so many types of plastic exist — from valuable to worthless, clean to contaminated, and recyclable to non-recyclable — importing countries are burdened with picking the few usable bits and disposing of the rest, often in unsafe and environmentally damaging ways. In Malaysia, investigators found a dump the size of six football fields with trash piled two stories high.
Illegal incineration of unrecyclable plastic pollutes these countries’ air and groundwater and releases chemicals linked to immune and reproductive system complications and cancers. Villagers living near illegal, unregulated recycling plants that have popped up since China’s ban complain of rashes and difficulty breathing.
Some facilities contaminate water near aquaculture farms that are raising seafood sold in the United States, while tofu factories in Indonesia have been documented burning plastic waste as fuel.
Clearly, exporting California waste is exporting our pollution problem to other families and communities.
Consumers contribute to this problem by purchasing non-recyclable products, but manufacturers must share responsibility for the solution by making truly recyclable products and packaging, and by ensuring that recycling actually occurs. Companies should phase out plastics that aren’t recyclable and redesign packaging to reduce use in the first place.
California’s policymakers are taking this problem seriously. Assemblywoman Susan Eggman, D-Stockton, has proposed the California Recycling Market Development Act, AB 1583, to reinvest in our state’s recycling infrastructure so we don’t export our waste problems to other countries.
The Legislature is also “Reducing, Reusing and Recycling” through two bills, SB 54 and AB 1080, to require reductions in single-use packaging and products sold or distributed in California by 75 percent by 2030. After 2030, these items must be effectively reusable, recyclable or compostable. The bills also encourage in-state manufacturing of products using recycled material generated in California.
Additionally, the Legislature is considering bills to require recycled content in beverage containers (AB 792) and to reopen shuttered recycling centers (SB 724).
Once approved and implemented, these measures would significantly reduce the $420 million that local governments, ratepayers and ultimately taxpayers spend each year to clean up litter in our communities and green spaces, and they would provide a waste-reduction model for other states and countries.
As the fifth largest economy in the world, California has a responsibility to help solve the plastic pollution crisis. The state must take dramatic steps now to cut down on unnecessary single-use packaging and products and improve recycling of the rest.
No community — whether in California or Southeast Asia — is disposable.