Exports of plastic waste has been identified as a significant global health and environmental threat, but current reporting systems underestimates the volume of plastic waste that are traded globally, suggests a new study by IPEN (International Pollutants Elimination Network).
The study focused on exports from Japan, UK, EU, and the US to non-OECD countries and Turkey, and it was carried out by IPEN, with researchers from the University of Gothenburg, Cukurova University and The Last Beach Cleanup organization.
In the study it was found out that when looking at plastic waste coming from textiles and waste paper bales, current systems miss as much as 1.8 million tonnes of these two types of hidden plastic waste.
Exported waste is tracked under an international coding system, but the system does not track exports by the type of material being traded. Researchers often use this coding system to analyze the plastic waste trade, but the code designated for plastic waste misses many of the ways that materials made from plastics are traded as wastes.
For example, waste paper bales may contain as much as 30% plastics, but these are not counted under the current system. Additionally, exports of worn synthetic (plastic) clothing are not categorized as plastic waste, even though much of the clothing is unusable and is immediately dumped in landfills or burned.
The study also says that even though high-income countries only account for 16% of the world’s population, they generate about 34% of the world’s waste. A large portion of wastes are plastics, which often contains toxic chemicals. Toxic chemicals from plastics contaminate air, water and land.
The study also suggests that without global policies to reduce plastic production, there will continue to be an unequal exchange of plastic wastes from high-income countries to low- and middle income countries.
Study can be found on here:
https://ipen.org/documents/plastic-waste-trade-hidden-numbers
