中国禁止进口洋垃圾 英国着急了……

本月，中国正式启动洋垃圾入境新规，这一消息让英国废物回收业界不知所措。因为过去英国每年运往中国50万吨废料，现在终止，英国没有能力处理如此大量的废料。如何脱离危机？英国政府目前也没招。

Experts predict growing chaos in the United Kingdom as materials build up at recycling plants around Britain following China's global ban on importing millions of metric tons of plastic waste.

专家预计，中国禁止进口来自全球的数百万吨塑料垃圾之后，英国各地的处理厂将堆满垃圾，情况将越来越混乱。

Simon Ellin, chief executive of the UK Recycling Association, a group that represents more than 80 UK recycling organizations, has called for urgent action, saying his members are already seeing lower-grade plastics pile up.

英国回收协会董事长西蒙-埃林呼吁采取紧急行动。他表示，协会成员已经发现劣质垃圾越堆越多。该协会成员包括80多家英国垃圾回收机构。

China was the main destination of the world's recyclable plastic but, since Monday, Beijing has banned 24 types of imported waste, including plastic and mixed paper.

中国曾经是全球可回收利用塑料垃圾的主要接收国，但自本周一（1月1日）以来，中国已禁止进口24种废弃物，包括废塑料和未经分拣的废纸。

The move was part of the Chinese government's campaign against "foreign garbage", which it has described as harmful to the environment and public health.

这项举措是中国政府打击“洋垃圾”整治行动的一部分，政府称“洋垃圾”对环境和公共卫生有害。

Ellin said the ramifications of the ban are already apparent in some of his members' yards.

埃林说，协会一些成员的垃圾处理厂已经受到这一禁令的影响。

"Plastics are building up," he said. "If you were to go around those yards in a couple of months' time, the situation would be even worse."

他说：“垃圾越堆越多。如果你过几个月再去看看，会发现情况更糟糕。”

Previously, the UK exported almost two-thirds of its total waste to China with UK businesses shipping more than 2.7 million tons of plastic waste to China since 2017, according to data from environmental group Greenpeace.

此前，英国将全部垃圾的近三分之二出口到中国。根据环保机构绿色和平组织的数据，自2017年以来，英国船运到中国的废塑料超过270万吨。

Ellin said many UK recyclers stopped shipping plastic to the world's second-largest economy in the autumn because of fears it might not arrive before the deadline.

埃林说，去年秋季，很多英国回收站不再将废塑料发船运往中国，因为他们担心在禁令生效前无法运达。

"We have relied on exporting plastic recycling to China for 20 years and now people do not know what is going to happen," he told the Guardian newspaper."A lot of (our members) are now sitting back and seeing what comes out of the woodwork, but people are very worried."

他对《卫报》表示：“过去20年我们一直依赖于把废塑料出口到中国去，现在大家不知道接下来该怎么办了。现在我们很多成员就这么干耗着，等着看会发生什么，但人们非常担心。”

He warned that local authorities' recycling efforts in the UK will bear the brunt of the ban in the short term.

他提醒说，短期内，英国地方当局的回收工作将首先受到冲击。

"If it no longer pays for our members to take this waste and sort it once it has been collected by councils, then that might stop," Ellin said. "This might mean that councils no longer collect recycling in the same way. It could be chaos, it really could."

埃林说：“如果地方议会的相关部门收了垃圾后不再为我们的成员支付收取和分类的费用，那有可能垃圾就不能得到处理了。这可能意味着地方议会要换个办法去回收处理。这会引起混乱，真的会。”

目前，英国正在思考垃圾的未来去向，短期做法是将废物出口到越南和印度等国家，但这些国家能够接收的规模有限，如果采取焚烧的方式处理，还将面临一系列环境问题。

The recycling business will now have to look to alternative destinations, such as Malaysia and Vietnam for their exports.

垃圾回收企业如今必须寻找其他的出口地了，比如马来西亚和越南。

But some industry experts believe China's decision to shut its doors could be an opportunity for the UK to develop its recycling infrastructure.

但一些业内专家认为，中国对洋垃圾关上大门对英国发展自身的回收设施来说也是个机遇。

西蒙-埃林对BBC称：“（中国的禁令）对我们而言是巨大的打击……我们行业的游戏规则被改变了……我们国内根本就没有这个市场。这意味着我们的行业将发生重大变化。”

废纸处理公司IWPP的一名员工表示：“我一点都不夸张地说，行业供应链将受到极大的影响。”

Ellin said there is a need to look at the "entire system from producing less, to better, simpler design, to standardized recycling".

埃林说，需要审视“从减少生产，到改善并简化设计，再到标准化回收的整个系统。”