MUNICH, Germany, May 24 (Xinhua) -- Industrial insiders participating in Germany’s world-leading environment fair IFAT in Munich considered that the prohibition of importing foreign garbage imposed by China had created opportunities for the development of recycling economy in Germany and Europe.
Since January of 2018, China began to ban imports of 24 types of solid waste, including plastics, unsorted paper, textiles and vanadium slag.
Michael Schneider, spokesman with Remondis, Germany’s largest environmental service provider, said that the prohibition have brought pressure to related enterprises in Germany and Europe, which has prompted policy-makers and economic circles to re-evaluate their own circular economy, and take corresponding measures.
Schneider said that it is not a long-term solution to export wastes to other developing countries. Germany and the European Union should formulate a future-oriented raw material strategy and promote the development of the local recycling economy.
The IFAT was initiated in 1966, and is now the world’s biggest and leading trade fair for water, sewage, waste, and raw materials management. It has taken place every two years since 2010. (Edited by Ma Xin, maxin11@xinhua.org)
A single purchase
