Recycling (and sometimes the lack thereof) has recently made headlines in the global mainstream media. The fact that more than 10% of the waste painstakingly put aside by UK consumers for recycling is sent to incineration plants instead has upset the British public. Enacted in 2018 and now extensively expanded, the import ban on all materials that China classifies as “solid waste” has met with growing concern in Europe and the USA. An initiative by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to promote eco-friendly, recyclable and non-plastic toys has even made it into the pages of US newspapers.
For this issue of WMW, we took a trip through the global recycling world: starting with the challenges the industry faces on the still quite informal Indian market, moving on to the technology with which China (particularly Shanghai so far) wants to tackle the growing need for waste separation, and finally looking at the opportunities that arise for our industry with the new aggressive environmental agenda of the Biden administration.
Enjoy the issue!