This is where the global dimension of the problem begins. It is often cheaper for developed countries to ship containers of plastic waste halfway around the world to be “recycled” in developing countries than to deal with the trash themselves.
While plastic importing and recycling can be a legitimate and lucrative “green” industry in the developing world, rogue firms find it even more profitable to either incinerate plastics or dump them in landfills. Burning plastic releases noxious fumes into the air. Plastics in landfills can leech out toxins, and these plastics and toxins can end up in local waterways.
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Who is at fault? The rogue importers? The local governments who allow this to happen under their very noses? Or the exporters and their governments who mentally distance themselves from the waste once it is geographically taken “away”?
The irony is that no matter how far this waste is distanced, it still ends up somewhere on Spaceship Earth, humankind’s one and only home. While the immediate negative effects of this imported waste are most acutely felt locally, the global ecosystem will suffer in the long run.
Source: Rich countries export worries along with their trash
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