Much of European plastic waste ends up in nature of Asian countries

Not all the plastic we put in the yellow bin gets recycled. A lot ends up in nature in Asian countries, like Vietnam, where it's sent for recycling but doesn't get recovered. Despite the EU's strict rules, our plastic waste, even from a bag of chips, might end up in a Vietnamese forest.

Research from Utrecht University found that Vietnam, with little oversight, faces this issue, and it's a problem in other Asian countries too. Around half of Europe's plastic waste goes to countries in the global south, like Malaysia and Indonesia. China used to take a lot, but they've banned it, reducing the quantities.

The case of Vietnam

A research team from Utrecht University ventured to Minh Khai Craft Village, Vietnam's largest recycling centre, to track the European plastic that they should theoretically recycle there.

"Kaustubh Thapa, the lead researcher, said in a statement, "We saw people cooking, eating, and living inside the recycling facility, surrounded by the harmful fumes of melted plastic. Children were playing in that suffocating environment.

"While this type of waste trade is profitable for some, shifting responsibility for waste management from producers to villages like these causes harm to people, communities and the environment," he added.

The UN is currently undergoing negotiations for an international plastics treaty. Thapa's new research strikingly contrasts Vietnamese and European policies with the actual situation of recycling centres in the global south.

"European consumers are trying to separate recycling, but a considerable percentage of their efforts are in vain" Kaustubh Thapa.

"European consumers are making efforts to separate recycling, but we can see that their efforts, to a considerable extent, are in vain," says Thapa. He adds that “focusing on increasing recycling rates in the EU without systematically addressing the associated human and environmental harm along the entire value chain is neither ethical, circular nor sustainable.”

Sustainable recycling of plastic is possible

Researchers are confident that plastic waste can be recycled sustainably. Thapa concludes that initiatives like the European Green Deal, its Circular Economy Action Plan, and the ongoing UN discussions on a legally binding Global Plastics Treaty cannot overlook their findings. As our consumption and waste generation increase, we need to systematically address the trade in waste for recycling.

In response to this issue, some Asian countries, including China, have started rejecting low-quality plastic waste from Western countries, which is often hard to recycle. The EU has also set limits on shipping plastic waste to southern countries to prevent it from ending up in their forests and seas.

However, as revealed by researchers from the University of Utrecht, there are still countries that accept all kinds of plastic waste, without any controlled management of it.

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