a warning was given by the packaging and films association pafa that if china implements bans on plastic import, the uk will face failure sooner than expected. last month, an announcement was made by china&rsquos ministry of commerce and national development, ministry of environmental protection, and reform commission, wherein it planned to apply regulations, such as prohibiting unwashed postconsumer plastic import banning transfer of imported waste to a company not stated on the import licence, and forbidding unwashed plastic leftover trade from sorting imported plastic and paper. import measures were stringent resulting in this move to make sure of supreme quality of plastics imports. this announcement was a result of malaysia&rsquos ban on plastic waste from the eu because of quality issues. post the announcement of china, the pafa ceo, barry turner stated as a warning that largescale export of plastic waste from the uk can end with the export bans from the far east. thus, the uk plastic industry will face added pressure on meeting impractical recycling targets. turner further said that if the new developments are applied in the far east, the new recycling targets will fail even faster than it is expected, as it is already claimed as impossible without adequate collection and recycling infrastructure. europe will be required to invest considerably for filling the size of the hole made and time will be needed for making this development. however, while attempting to meet defra&rsquos plastic recycling targets, uk&rsquos waste industry will be largely impacted by these moves. turner is certain that it will be impractical to reach a 57 percent target by 2017, while defra statistics records 67 per cent of plastic waste exported from britain to the far east, specifically china. moreover, the uk already has shortage of plastic collection and recycling facilities. pafa insists on defra rethinking about plastic recycling targets because of the changes pressurizing the plastic industry. lastly, turner stated that defra&rsquos advisory comittee informed it the previous year about the unfeasible targets and now they are viewing unexpected moves taken previously by the far east that will further decline their possibilities of attaining the targets. no joint thoughts about waste and recycling targets are evident and uk manufacturers and retailers are compelled with the cost and responsibility burden, when they can barely afford it. source of information httpwww.resource.uk.comarticleukplasticrecyclingtargetsthreatenedchinaban23…
