China announces ‘Sword’ crackdown on illegal scrap plastic imports
A campaign aimed at curbing criminal activity could cause headaches for those legally sending recyclable materials across the Pacific Ocean.
China’s General Administration of Customs announced it will launch the one-year campaign, which will target “foreign waste,” including plastics, industrial waste, electronics and other household waste materials.
The effort is part of a larger initiative some are translating into English as “National Sword 2017,” which is also targeting the smuggling, particularly by organized crime, of agricultural products, resource products, drugs, guns and more. It comes four years after China initiated its Operation Green Fence, an imports-enforcement campaign that sent ripples through the North American recycling supply chain.
The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries is monitoring the new campaign and its impacts on companies sending shipments of recovered material from the U.S. to China. It first reported the new effort on Feb. 10 and provided an update on Feb. 15. Click here to view the full article.
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