UPDATED: China to prohibit the import of plastic waste end of this month
UPDATED: China to prohibit the import of plastic waste end of this month
As reported earlier, the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment has decided that 16 types of solid waste including waste hardware, waste ships, pressed parts for waste cars, smelting slag, and post-industrial grades of plastics waste shall be listed under the ‘prohibited imports’ category starting 31 December 2018.
Following table listed details of the affected wastes:
|
HS code |
Description |
|
|
2618001001 |
Granulated slag (including slag sand) produced by smelting the steel that mainly containing manganic, with manganic more than 25% |
|
|
2619000010 |
Scaling from the rolling of iron or steel |
|
|
2619000030 |
Slag, dross containing more than 80% of steel, from the manufacture of iron or steel |
|
|
3915100000 |
Waste, parings and scrap of polymers of ethylene |
|
|
3915200000 |
Waste, parings and scrap of polymers of styrene |
|
|
391530000 |
Waste, parings and scrap of polymers of vinyl chloride |
|
|
3915901000 |
Waste, parings and scrap of polyethylene glycol terephthalate |
|
|
7204490010 |
Compressed auto body |
|
|
7204490020 |
Waste hardware and electric appliance mainly for recycling steel and iron |
|
|
7404000010 |
Waste electric machines mainly for recycling copper, including waste wires, cables, hardware and electric appliance |
|
|
7602000010 |
Waste electric machines mainly for recycling aluminium, including waste wires, cables, hardware and electric appliance |
|
|
8908000000 |
Vessels and other floating structures for breaking up |
|
|
Email: admin@commoplast.com |
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The Chinese government has been tightly controlling the in-flow of plastic waste to the country since 2017. In 2018, there is only slightly more than 76,000 tons of plastic waste under the heading 3915 imported to the country compared to tens of million tons in the previous years.
|
HS code |
Product Type |
Approved import volume in 2018 (tons) |
|
3915100000 |
Waste and scrap of ethylene polymer |
21,730 |
|
3915200000 |
Waste and scrap of styrene polymer |
5,892 |
|
3915300000 |
Waste and scrap of vinyl chloride polymer |
23
|
|
3915901000 |
Polyethylene terephthalate waste and scrap |
17,798
|
|
3915909000 |
Other plastic scraps and scraps |
30,594 |
|
|
Total |
76,037 |
Referring to the petrochemical industry, a majority of plastics waste come from post-consumer sources, which has been banned since 2017 and adding the post-industrial grades of plastics waste to the prohibited category would mean that no plastics waste shall enter China starting 1 January 2019.