CRI - China Sends Smuggled Waste Back to Netherlands

In a past post, I discussed e-waste that is illegally sent to Ghana.  This issue is causing environmental and human health problems, due to the ways Ghanaians find to deal with this waste.  This week, I am writing about a similar issue that is brought to my attention through “China Sends Smuggled Waste Back to Netherlands” in the English section of China Radio International.

In China, there are laws that control what waste enters the country, not allowing anything that cannot be used as a raw material, or anything that will severely affect the environment.  An investigation showed that a trading firm called Hepu hass been buying waste through a company in Taiwan.  This company then finds whatever is valuable in the waste to sell at exorbitant prices, then dump the rest without any thought of its effect to the environment.  In response to the findings on Hepu, Chinese authorities shipped 753-tonnes of waste back to the originating country of the Netherlands on June 1.

This is a great step for the Chinese government to prevent waste in their country.  Whether locals are encouraged to prevent waste is something I do not yet know, however based on this particular law, if they are not yet, this is something that is to come.

Jerry Rawles says it well:
People throw all sorts of good stuff away and I thought no point in having that in a landfill when I can do something with it