Malaysia, Vietnam and India increased plastic scraps imports after China ban

In July 2017, China sent an official announcement to the World Trade Organisation that the country will stop importing some twenty-four (24) types of scrap including plastic waste, which abuzz market concern around the world.

Before the ban, China was the world’s largest plastic scraps buyer, taking approximate 7.3 million tons from import market in 2016 alone, accounting for 56 percents of the world imports.

Sources are expecting the labour intensive job of cleaning and separating the plastic waste into different plastic resins and finally reshape into new products to shift to Southeast Asian countries.

In fact, data from the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) shows a drastic increase in scrap plastic import to Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia in 2017.

The figures suggest a major shift in the flow of plastic scrap in 2017, however, the question lays on the sustainability of the trend. This is especially when most Southeast Asian countries are yet to develop an effective domestic recycling system and a heavy flow of unregulated plastic waste might prompt similar ban to those implemented in China.

Starting 1 March 2018, China slightly relaxes the ban by adopting the new 0.5% contamination standard for waste and scrap of plastics and waste and scrap of paper or paperboard. However, very few companies could meet the required standard at the moment.