Waste Colonialism is on the Rise in Post-Brexit Britain
Alida Browne / Feb 7 / Environment
From 1st January of this year, the EU banned the shipment of non-recyclable plastic waste to developing nations in the ‘Global South’ in an attempt to battle plastic pollution and its negative effects on these countries. Although clean plastic will still be shipped, stricter measures are being imposed on what can and cannot be exported. Following the exit from the EU by the UK, Brexit has left a ‘loophole’ for the UK, meaning they do not have to abide by EU law that has banned the exportation of unsorted plastic to less economically developed countries.
The UK and much of Europe have had a history of exporting their ‘recyclable’ plastics by shipping and selling them to developing nations. This trend has allowed exporting countries to avoid using up their limited landfill space and gives richer nations countries such as the UK a cheaper option than managing their waste themselves.
Currently, the UK is the world’s second-largest producer of per-capita plastic waste after the USA. Originally many countries in the Global north including the US and the UK sold and exported their waste to China- which had handled nearly half of the world's recyclable waste for the past 25 years. However, China’s ban on the importation of most plastics in 2018 has meant mega waste-producing countries had to look elsewhere. Countries in
Southeast Asia, such as Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia have taken on China’s role as the UK’s rubbish dump.
Waste colonialism, a term popularised in the 1990s, has been used to explain patterns of power in waste and pollution. It was first coined when African nations spoke out about concerns over hazardous waste being dumped by high GDP countries on low GDP countries to capitalise on cheap waste disposal. Mindless waste dumping and the subsequent pollution from the latter reflect similar attitudes towards developing countries to that of colonialism, a history the UK knows all too well. For example,
Vietnam is on track to becoming the world’s largest landfill with about 85% of the waste in the country being buried without treatment in landfill sites, 80% of which are unhygienic and pollute the environment.
The UK takes advantage of gaps in policy to ship large volumes of plastic waste to a country already overrun with plastic waste. Exporting nations such as the UK will claim it benefits the receiving country financially, and it is not to be ignored that the waste sector in Vietnam does account for informal sector income for low-income families. High GDP countries capitalise on the fact that countries like Vietnam will accept their plastic at an inexpensive price due to its less regulated waste disposal laws. At face value, this may seem like a win-win situation. However, the sheer amount of plastic being exported by countries such as the UK has become too much for these nations to deal with sustainably. The UK government has maintained its laissez- attitude to the problem despite being aware of the numerous negatives effects it leaves on countries such as Vietnam.
In 2018, 356,233 tonnes of plastic waste was sent by the UK to developing countries. The consequences for Vietnam include an unprecedented amount of plastic waste infiltrating into rivers and seas.
Vietnamese ports are covered in containers of not only plastic but paper and metal scrap. In addition to the visual pollution, the sending of unrecyclable waste to incineration plants cannot be ignored either; it is well documented that burning plastic is having negative effects on local populations’ air quality and health. Can the UK conscientiously or ethically dump vast amounts of contaminated and unsorted plastic to countries that are less able to deal with it? With Brexit meaning, the UK no longer legally have to abide by EU law banning the exportation of plastics, the future of this problem is unclear.
Leaving the EU was promised by the UK government as an opportunity to lead the way on environmental protection promised as a ‘green Brexit’. Of course, this has not yet been the case since in the first few days of January this year, the government continued to ship unsorted waste to other countries.
As the EU takes steps towards accountability of their waste, we can only wait and see if Brexit allows the UK a ‘get out of jail free card’ when it comes to the responsible disposal of their plastic rubbish. To properly manage the plastic-problem the UK need to manage their plastic usage from the off-set. Reducing what is produced and used should be the first port of call, along with investment in how to re-use and dispose of plastic waste on their own soil, rather than irresponsibly dumping it on the front door of less wealthy nations.
The UK has claimed that it will ban the practice, however, when reading between the lines, the validity of this statement is up to debate as Brexit allows for Britain to avoid fines by the EU for illegal dumping of waste; a practice that had previously forced the UK into taking environmental issues more seriously. The worry that now that no one is looking over their shoulder, how will the UK behave unconstrained by the influence of the EU?
The plastic crisis is a global one, and exporting plastic does nothing more than moving the problem halfway across the planet. Our planet is a shared resource and plastic in the ocean travels without adherence to political borders. The UK has a responsibility to manage their waste, instead of playing a game of musical chairs when it comes to deciding the next country to manage its waste at a lower cost.