China’s Tug-of-War with Foreign Waste

Sorting waste that industrialized countries are unable or unwilling to manage is a lucrative business. China is taking in 56% of the world’s exported waste, making it one of the leading importers. Japan and the United States top the list of exporters. The reason much of the world’s waste ends up in China is that the country buys at the highest price, often more than doubling the price others offer. Once in China, waste workers process and sort the trash. The industry then sells recycled trash back to foreign countries. In 2016, China imported 7.3 million tons of waste, in total worth $370 million. 

Much of the waste is plastics and electronics. Although the amount of electronic waste has been increasing in countries like the United States, electronic–waste processing plants in the United States aren’t doing very well. Between 2005 and 2015, the American waste management company Electronics Recyclers International (ERI) increased its collection volumes 23-fold, yet the number of its US plants is down to just ...