Where does all the plastic go?

11:21am Thursday 30th November 2006

Dear editor,

Since Pembrokeshire County Council introduced the orange bag recycling scheme, my wife and I have enjoyed the challenge of recycling whatever we can from our household waste.

And, despite the fact that we still have not received our garden compost bin, we are also able to dispose of all our garden waste, on a part of our back garden.

But we were both shocked at the report on Sky News on Saturday, November 25, about plastic recycling.

Quite a few local authorities do not collect plastics because of their light weight and the volume, which makes it expensive to recycle. So we were pleased to be able to recycle our plastics, or so we thought, rather than have them sent to landfill.

The Sky News report showed the horrific environmental damage done to the Chinese town of Lianjiao, in southern China's Guandong Province. Toxic gases pollute the air. Waste goes into rivers as a by-product of melting the plastics.

Lianjiao was completely immersed in plastic waste from Britain and other European nations. The reporter was able to identify packaging from Tesco and Sainsbury's, as part of her report.

Why the link with Pembrokeshire? Well, 75% to 90% of the UK's plastic waste goes to China for recycling.

That's a 5,000 mile journey, whereby people as young as 14 years old earn £50 a month. They are sacrificing their environment for economic development as apparently plastic waste is one of the UK's main exports to China.

Can County Hall please tell us whether our waste plastic ends up in China as the odds certainly seem to suggest it will. If we are complicit in destroying the environment and health of the town on Lianjiao, and its people, maybe we need to take urgent steps to stop this exploitation.

Andrew C. Lye, Woodlands View, Johnston.