Fraudsters seem to be dumping plastic waste that was meant to be recycled. Scandalous though that is, it is only part of Britain’s larger waste problem
Recent reports about suspected abuses by plastic waste exporters are dispiriting reading to all those who try to do their bit for the environment by recycling packaging at home. This is not the first time such failures have been highlighted. But the scale of the suspected fraud now being investigated by the Environment Agency is shocking. Six licences have been cancelled in the past three months and there is a discrepancy of 35,135 tonnes between exporters’ records and those of HM Customs. Worse than the suggestion of false claims for nonexistent waste is the idea that some of the bottles and cartons that people bothered to rinse out and bag up for collection are likely to have been dumped, not recycled, and perhaps to have ended up in the sea.
That this situation has arisen is in part due to the UK having been forced to seek new buyers for plastic waste after China blocked imports at the start of the year. Exports first shifted to Vietnam, Malaysia and Poland; then to the Netherlands and Turkey. One allegation is that firms have exploited looser regulations on exports within Europe to launder plastic waste from the UK in the Netherlands, before transferring it illegally to Asia.
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