China is in the earlier phase of industrialization where the focus is on escaping poverty/building wealth over a clean environment.
All currently rich countries have gone through this phase, so it's hard to judge them too harshly for this, and they are showing signs of transitioning to the cleanup phase.
Use of disposable plastics is actually _accelerating_ as China develops. The most developed cities are the ones where the most plastics get thrown away.
In Shanghai, for instance, almost everything is delivered. Meals, products, groceries. Every single item is wrapped in layers and layers of disposable plastics. You buy a coconut, it’s wrapped in styrofoam, then wrapped in plastic. This all ends up in the ocean.
A billion plastic bags are thrown away every day in China. This has nothing to do with lack of development, and nothing to do with importing recyclables. It is lack of education, disregard for the environment, and poor government policy wrt recycling and waste reduction.
Or is it that China has much bigger environmental problems with the air itself being extremely toxic for example, that plastic bags are a luxury problem right now?
Comments
China is in the earlier phase of industrialization where the focus is on escaping poverty/building wealth over a clean environment.
All currently rich countries have gone through this phase, so it's hard to judge them too harshly for this, and they are showing signs of transitioning to the cleanup phase.
Use of disposable plastics is actually _accelerating_ as China develops. The most developed cities are the ones where the most plastics get thrown away.
In Shanghai, for instance, almost everything is delivered. Meals, products, groceries. Every single item is wrapped in layers and layers of disposable plastics. You buy a coconut, it’s wrapped in styrofoam, then wrapped in plastic. This all ends up in the ocean.
A billion plastic bags are thrown away every day in China. This has nothing to do with lack of development, and nothing to do with importing recyclables. It is lack of education, disregard for the environment, and poor government policy wrt recycling and waste reduction.
Or is it that China has much bigger environmental problems with the air itself being extremely toxic for example, that plastic bags are a luxury problem right now?