Made in China and the new world of secondary resource recovery

Gregson, N.; Crang, M.

Abstract

On 18 July 2017, the Chinese government informed the World Trade Organization of its intention, by year end, to ban imports of recovered mixed paper, recycled plastic, textiles and vanadium slag. In April 2018, China extended that ban to another 32 categories of used goods and materials, including scrap metal. Another 16 categories are banned from the end of 2020 and new standards applied to others. Suddenly, waste and recycling had catapulted from industries that few cared much about to the top of the agenda of the primary body governing global trade (www.resource-recycling.com – 27 March 2018) and onto the desks of municipalities and governments across the world. Why? Because in 2015 and 2016, the last available official figures show China (often via Hong Kong) imported at least 48.2 and 46.7 million tonnes, respectively, in the customs categories that include the affected wastes (comtrade.un.org).

Citation

Gregson, N., & Crang, M. (2019). Made in China and the new world of secondary resource recovery. Environment and Planning A, 51(4), 1031-1040. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518x18791175

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 5, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Aug 12, 2018
• Publication Date: Jun 1, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jul 6, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 6, 2018
• Journal: Environment and Planning A
• Print ISSN: 0308-518X
• Electronic ISSN: 1472-3409
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 51
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 1031-1040
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518x18791175
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1322126