When China first announced that it has imposed a ban on the import of waste plastic bags, film and netting, the global industry sat up and started asking questions about the ban, seeking clarification on the exact waste items which are no longer allowed into the Mainland.

Confusion over the waste plastic import ban prompted the Chinese State Environment Protection Administration (SEPA) to release a notice clarifying and further defining the banned items on 28 February 2008.

Even then, the industry debated whether the ban was really only for waste plastic bags, and post-consumer waste. Further discussions on the impact on the global recycling industry, particularly for Europe, started.

PackWebasia.com, the only daily online news service on the Asian packaging supply-chain, has examined the original legislation and is now publishing its analysis report: China’s Waste Import Ban Explained.

Understand the Time-line

The report takes the reader to the very start of the saga, when five government ministries and agencies - SEPA, Ministry of Commerce, National Development and Reform Commission, General Administration of Customs, and the State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) - released two revised catalogues for imported waste materials.

Under Notice 2008 No. 11, the two catalogues - Catalogue of Solid Wastes Prohibited from Import (2004) and Catalogue of Sold Waste Restricted from Import (2004) – have been updated to include extensive lists of waste material imports to be banned or restricted from 1 March 2008, including a range of both plastic and paper material waste imports.

Used plastic; bags, films and nets, which China used to import in large quantities, were not listed in previous banned imports catalogues. According to the Notice they will ‘not be imported into China any longer’.

PackWebasia.com also looks at the Chinese clarification notice released by SEPA on 29 February.

In the notice, SEPA states that “Waste plastic bags, films, and netting refers to the used plastic bags, films and 'web' sorted out from the garbage collected from households or from the 'lifestyle rubbish' (ie. General waste collected from anywhere else).”

However, SEPA went on to state that “Raw material/industrial waste imports will continue covered by the previous legislation (entitled) 'Allowed raw material imports of solid waste environmental control standards - plastic waste'

PackWebasia.com examines what ‘raw material/industrial waste imports’ means in the Chinese legislation, and also explains exactly what sorts of plastic waste is banned from the country.

Besides the strict ban on imported used plastic bags, film and netting, Ethylene, Styrene, Vinyl Chloride, Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), Polycarbonate, and other plastics are not allowed into the country in any form, including flake, massive, granular, or powder.

The legislation also clearly lists other items such as asbestos-containing waste, burned/partially burned waste plastic, plastic containers, and airtight containers as disallowed.

The only leeway open to importers, PackWebasia.com explains, is the allowance of a marginal error of 0.01% of the total weight imported.

Not the Plastic Bag Ban

There has been some confusion in the media which wrongly relates the import ban on plastic to the State Council notice issued a month earlier. 

PackWebasia.com’s analysis: China’s Plastic Bag Law , the report puts to rest the confusion between the waste import ban and the Plastic Bag Law.

While waste plastic bags – all sorts of bags – are listed as a banned waste import item, the only relation between both legislations, China’s Waste Import Ban Explained shows, is their roles under China’s overall Packaging Recycling Master-Plan.

Why ban waste plastic?

AQSIQ has stated, in a separate statement, that China will ‘never allow "foreign garbage" into the country’ again, and added that it is essential, for the wellbeing of the people and future generations, that China exercised its sovereign power to create ‘policies of strong work’ to tackle this matter: 

Pointing to waste imports as a major contributing factor to China’s pollution, AQSIQ added, “There was a time when, due to various reasons, some unscrupulous traders and foreign mercenaries, imported toxic and hazardous raw material waste, which they called ‘trade waste’ to China. This resulted in many serious environmental pollution imported waste incidents

“At present, China is making great efforts to resolve its environmental problems, and will never allow developed countries and regions to use our country as a dumping waste site for toxic and hazardous waste.

“We will never allow "foreign garbage" into the country.”

The report examines the implications of the waste plastic import ban on various countries and also further unravels the reason behind China’s implementation of the ban.

PackWebasia.com’s report: China’s Waste Import Ban Explained, will be published on 21 March 2008, and includes the Chinese text and its English translations of the various Chinese governmental legislations and notices related to the topic.