Impact of China’s National Sword Policy on the U.S. Landfill and Plastics Recycling Industry

Aditya Vedantam,Khadija Ajmal,Nallan C Suresh,Michael Shelly

doi:10.3390/su14042456

Aditya Vedantam, Khadija Ajmal + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su14042456

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Abstract

This paper analyzes the impacts of China’s Green Fence and National Sword Programs, under which strict contamination limits were imposed on recyclable materials, besides prohibiting imports of low quality recyclables. Specifically, this study investigates the impacts of this policy on landfills, and the risks to the U.S. plastics secondary materials market and material recovery facilities (MRFs). A hierarchical regression analysis reveals the significant impacts of China’s Green Fence and National Sword polices on the amount landfilled plastic. Controlling for oil prices, producer price index (PPI), and amount of plastic scrap exported, our findings show that the Green Fence had no statistically significant impact on the amount of plastic landfilled in the U.S. However, the quantity of plastic landfilled in the U.S. increased by 23.2% following the implementation of National Sword. Furthermore, analysis of the annual reports submitted by registered MRFs in New York (NY) state reveals that the total amount of plastic recovered by them has decreased. We suggest that demand creation and investments that improve the quality of bales are needed to help solve this economic dilemma.

Highlights

The environmental impact of the improper disposal of plastics has received considerable attention in recent years due to the adverse effects of plastic waste on health and the environment [1]
This paper represents the first attempt, to the best of our knowledge, to provide an econometric analysis to test the impacts of China’s National Sword policy on the amount of plastic landfilled in the U.S In doing so, we provide a data driven approach to assess the extent of the impact of the Sword restrictions on plastics, which may be useful to U.S policymakers in formulating public policy around plastic recycling
Our analysis indicates that there is no significant association between oil prices and the amount of plastic waste landfilled in the U.S Model 4 shows that the relationship between producer price index (PPI) and the amount of plastic landfilled is not significant, yielding no support for Hypothesis 5 (H5)

Summary

Introduction

The environmental impact of the improper disposal of plastics has received considerable attention in recent years due to the adverse effects of plastic waste on health and the environment [1]. Increasing recycling and reuse of plastics is crucial to plastic waste management and the avoidance of landfilling [4]. The U.S shipped most of its plastic scrap overseas, to China [8]. In 2013, China introduced the “Green Fence”, which involved more intensive inspections of incoming loads of scrap material. In March 2018, China introduced a 0.5 percent contamination limit along with an outright ban on many recyclables, including plastics [9]. Recent research has highlighted the positive ecological impacts of lowered shipping of plastic scrap over large distances as a positive effect of China’s Sword [10]. The glut of plastic waste has caused some to speculate that the landfilling of plastics has increased in the U.S [11]

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