What was the trigger for the 'National Sword' ban on China's waste import ban?

China has been importing waste from all over the world for many years to process and recycle waste, but at the end of 2017 we established a new regulation " national sword (National Sword) ", many waste including plastic garbage We prohibited the import of goods. Avery Trufelman who is producer at 99 Percent Invisible of the media on design etc. is summarizing about what triggered such a national sword and what kind of influence is given to the world on the whole .

National Sword - 99% Invisible
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/national-sword/

Once in the US many of the waste was collected in large bottles such as paper and plastic, many of which were exported to China. In China, a system of importing resource waste from each country to supplement the raw materials of the manufacturing industry, recycling it and reusing it has been introduced, and many developed countries relied on exporting recyclable resource waste to China Thing.

However, since the end of 2017 China has implemented a national sword and stops importing plastic garbage and certain paper types. In countries such as the United States where resource suddenly lost their export destinations, collection of resource waste is stopped in some cities, lump-making and incineration processing is being pursued. Even municipalities that collect resource waste still continue to have trouble with their customers, and instead of profit by selling recycled materials, there is a cost to maintain the storage space "Says Trufelman.

When China entered the global trade market, it was an efficient system to take export goods from China off the export destination, load the resource waste as a raw material of the manufacturing industry instead and bring it back to China. Many countries have delegated the processing of resource waste depending on the system, but many countries have been affected by the National Sword.

In response to the question "Why did China implement the national sword and changed its policy so far?", Some experts said that "Wang Jilang's documentary film called" Plastic China "was the beginning There seems to be some people pointing out.

PLASTIC CHINA Documentary Film Official Site

You can see what kind of movie "Plastic China" is, by seeing the following movie.

IDFA 2016 | Trailer | Plastic China


In a lot of garbage mountains ......

A girl preparing her hair.

A lot of recycling facilities exist in China, and Plastic China is a documentary covering a family owned such a recycling facility and a family working at a recycling facility.

Jie, a daughter of a family working at a recycling facility, wash his face with gray water floating plastic waste and prepared her hair.

A machine that recycles plastic waste in the immediate vicinity of the place of living is in operation ... ...

I live in a bad environment where plastic dust flies.

People who work at recycling facilities are processing to separate and purify the collected resource waste and to recycle them.

Eleven-year-old Jie is helping her parents' job and he has not even gone to school.

Cut out pictures from foreign garbage and clean their figures discarded as garbage and make them into their own toys.

Jie's father, Peng, is drinking while saying "I have no money because I do not have any money".

The family lives in a very small space, and people working at recycling facilities are all similar living environments. The village where people live is covered with plastic garbage.

In the documentary, I also covered Kun's family, a recycling facility boss ... ...

Kun's view of the PC site and shining eyes on the newly announced car is introduced.

To Kun who likes a car, "My dream is not dreaming, because my money is not there!" My wife is hanging on, but here "I do not have money" sounds quite different from Peng's case I will.

Kun traveled to the car exhibition, watching a car of 50 thousand euros (about 6.3 million yen) and talking to "You must save money for 10 years ..."

I tried and tested and was crazy.

People who are buried in plastic garbage.

Plastic China has been exhibited at numerous film festivals and has earned high praise.

Plastic China released in 2016 can not be viewed by the Chinese government from the internet in China. However, I was able to view it even in China for a while. As the Chinese government swept the view of Plastic China for a while, the national sword was carried out, so the Chinese government, which viewed the situation of recycling facilities in China by Plastic China as a problem, switched to suspension of resource waste import It is said that it is not.

Countries that have eliminated export destinations of resource trash by National Sword While some countries are considering selling to other countries, while countries that invest in domestic recycling facilities by recycling facilities and the latest recycling equipment and municipalities There is also. However, there are too many resource waste to be discharged, and it is very difficult to recycle resource waste which is dirty with drink and food trash. As a result, resource waste that is landfilled or incinerated without being recycled is increasing.

As the recycling path, which is one of the slogans " Reduce, Reuse, Recycle " is narrowing, people need to make efforts to purchase environmentally friendly products that have few packaging and can be repeatedly used. Also, Mr. Trufelman said that governments and municipalities may be forced to strengthen the pressure on excess packaging of products and the development of products that are easy to recycle.