Global recycling in chaos over China ban

Piling up: NGO officials standing near plastic waste at the abandoned factory in Jenjarom in this file picture taken in early March. — AFP

JENJAROM: From grubby packaging engulfing small South-East Asian communities to waste piling up in plants from the United States to Australia, China’s ban on accepting the world’s used plastic has plunged global recycling into turmoil.

For many years, China received the bulk of scrap plastic from arou­nd the world, processing much of it into a higher quality material that could be used by manufacturers.