1990 ‘95 2000 ‘05 ‘10 ‘15‘1751015
GLOBAL WASTE PLASTIC
EXPORTS TO ALL NATIONS
MillIons of metric tons
1990–2017METRIC TONSGLOBAL WASTE PLASTIC EXPORTS TO ALL NATIONS
January 2017—September 2018*100,000February 2017
581,000
metric tonsFebruary 2018
23,900
metric tonsGLOBAL
WASTE PLASTIC
EXPORTS TO CHINAJanuary
2018September
2018January
2017July
201781 other countries
exported plastic waste
to China in 2017JapanU.S.Germany
Thailand
Indonesia
U.K.
South Korea
Belgium
Mexico
Hong KongTOP 10, 2017EMBARK (^) | DATA SHEET
AFTER IMPORTING NEARLY half of the planet’s plastic recyclables
for three decades, China barred the import of most residential
recyclables in 2017. The ban is part of its efforts to clean its envi-
ronment and improve quality of life. Now other countries in Asia
are increasing their plastic waste imports, raising environmen-
tal concerns about their ability to handle such large volumes of
recyclables. Meanwhile, in developed countries many domestic
recycling programs have been halted because of the cost.
PLASTIC
WASTE
CRACKDOWN BY SEAN MCNAUGHTON AND KELSEY NOWAKOWSKI
SOURCES: UN COMTRADE; THAI CUSTOMS DEPARTMENT; HONG KONG CENSUS AND STATISTICS
DEPARTMENT; KOREA CUSTOMS SERVICE; EUROSTAT; ADINA R. ADLER, INSTITUTE OF SCRAP RECYCLING
INDUSTRIES; AMY BROOKS, JENNA JAMBECK, SHUNLI WANG, UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
*LATEST AVAILABLE DATA. INDONESIA’S 2018
EXPORT DATA WERE NOT AVAILABLE.
In July 2017 China
began stringently
enforcing environ-
mental laws, leading
to an immediate
decline in imported
plastic even before
the ban started.
One reason for
the drop in 2017:
fewer markets for
plastic waste
Learn more about plastic waste and take the pledge
to reduce it at natgeo.com/plasticpledge.
The crackdown
on plastic waste
from residential
collections began in
- The trickle that
remained was from
industrial imports.
The number of
countries exporting
plastic waste to
China fell from 90 in
2017 to just over 40
by September 2018.
Thailand and Malaysia
saw an uptick in
imports after the ban.