The future of the country's industrial development is bright, but it has to go through a tortuous process, such as encountering resource consumption problems and environmental protection problems. Different countries have different solutions to solve the problem.
In the past, the mainland once became the receiving warehouse of "foreign garbage" behind Western capital, but then we decisively chose to refuse to accept it.
Why was the mainland once willing to accept "foreign garbage" from the West? Why did it refuse to accept it later? How is the "foreign garbage" handled today?
It used to be a "foreign garbage" receiving warehouse
In the 80s and 90s of the 20th century, there was an import boom of "foreign garbage" on the mainland. What is "foreign garbage"?
It refers to the solid waste that we collect from abroad, including domestic waste, e-waste and other waste materials.
In the past, the mainland was the world's largest importer of "foreign garbage". At that time, with the rapid development of economy and industry, the mainland had deeper and deeper ties and exchanges with countries around the world, and was called the "world factory" at that time.
Not only the domestic market demand is strong, but the market volume in the world is also expanding, so the mainland manufacturing and other industries have an increasing demand for raw materials for products.
Because the mainland's industrial system at that time was not perfect, the mainland thought of "waste reuse" to meet the needs of development, after all, it is much cheaper and cheaper to collect the cost of raw materials from waste than to directly choose new raw materials.
When the mainland carries "Made in China" products to all parts of the world, the developed countries in the West also carry the recycled materials of these countries back, including waste paper, electronic waste, scrap steel and other materials, which are transported back to the mainland, and then after layers of sorting and processing, they are then manufactured into new products.
What we buy is foreign garbage, but we can get the metals we need, such as copper, aluminum, tin, and even those obsolete military equipment, which not only provide us with raw materials, but also provide some kind of technical reference.
In the face of the demand of the mainland, the developed countries in the West are happy to cooperate with us, and their waste disposal costs are extremely high, and if they can be exported to China for disposal, it is very economical. In this case, the so-called "foreign garbage" has become a sweet spot that can make many people rich.
It is undeniable that under the national conditions of the mainland at that time, the reuse of "foreign garbage" waste was the need and choice of the mainland's economic development, and it did promote the development of the mainland's industry and economy.
More than four-fifths of the residents and families in Guiyu Town, Guangdong Province, participated in the sorting and smelting of electronic "foreign waste", and in 2010, the output value of Guiyu Town in the recycling, processing and reuse of electronics, hardware and other materials reached 5 billion yuan, and the annual decomposition of electronic waste was also more than 1.5 million tons.
However, in addition to the well-deserved title of "No. 1 town of e-waste", Guiyu Town actually has the titles of "the world's most toxic place" and "cancer village".
The recycling and reuse of "foreign garbage" has indeed provided a lot of help to the mainland's economic and industrial development, and it is also a good thing to be able to recycle and reuse waste, but the fact is that this matter is not as good as we imagined.
At that time, our recycling technology was not advanced enough, and our awareness of environmental protection was not sufficient, and "foreign garbage" began to cause fatal damage while making money.
Why did you later refuse "foreign garbage"?
Both we and Western countries have reaped their own benefits, but why did the mainland later ban foreign garbage from importing into the country?
In Guiyu Town, in order to save money and because there is not enough technical support, local residents recycle foreign garbage by incinerating and pickling to extract valuable metals such as gold, tin, and copper from the "garbage".
The simple and crude treatment also caused the heavy metal levels in the town's soil and water sources to exceed the standard, and even the toxic waste went directly into the river, and according to the survey, the heavy metal content in some parts of the local soil was 100 to 1,000 times higher than that of the control area. In this way, the wastewater and exhaust gas produced by the recycling of foreign garbage affect the local soil and air, and then begin to affect human health.
Although many people in Guiyu Town work hard to collect garbage to make money, they are suffering from respiratory infectious diseases, and even their skin begins to fester, suffering from serious kidney stones. And this disease also affects the life and health of future generations. Since 2006, hundreds of children have been suffering from lead poisoning in their blood every year.
Although Guiyu Town is a representative area for recycling foreign garbage, it is also an area that is deeply affected by foreign garbage, and what is even more frightening is that Guiyu Town is only a small representative of the mainland recycling industry at that time, and there are still hundreds of towns like this that rely on foreign garbage recycling but are hurt by foreign garbage in the country.
They all choose to extract useful waste simply and rudely, and the environmental impact of this treatment method is not within their consideration, so it is conceivable how much harm we will be affected if this kind of village and town continues to spread.
The mainland's remediation of "foreign garbage".
The passage of time has made the national situation different, but also made the mainland realize that we cannot allow foreign garbage to invade the mainland, although our economy has achieved a certain development, but the cost of life and environmental protection is too heavy, we must adhere to the concept of sustainable development, refuse to recycle foreign garbage.
As early as July 2017, the General Office of the State Council of the mainland issued a reform plan to prohibit the entry of foreign garbage, and in January 2018, the mainland officially implemented new regulations prohibiting the entry of "foreign garbage", stopping the import of 24 kinds of solid waste in 4 categories, and adjusted it to 32 types in April 2018.
In June 2018, the mainland pointed out in the "Opinions" that the goal is to basically achieve zero imports of "foreign garbage" by 2020. In 2020, the mainland made it even clearer that it would gradually achieve zero imports of "foreign garbage".
With the implementation of the mainland's ban on the import of "foreign garbage", the mainland's import volume of "foreign garbage" has indeed been greatly reduced, and by the end of 2020, the import of waste materials is basically gone, but our imports of recycled pulp and plastics that meet the standards are increasing.
After we refuse to recycle foreign garbage, related industries will inevitably suffer, especially the mainland's foreign garbage treatment industry has undergone earth-shaking changes. Businesses that once relied on simple and crude recycling had to stop production and be forced to upgrade. A small number of enterprises have withdrawn from the market in the competition, but more enterprises are upgrading the system and moving towards an orderly, standardized and sustainable development direction.
In the past, these small workshops such as Guiyu Town were also called "Tomorrow's Yellow Flowers" in the upgrading of enterprises, and now the development of standardized and environmentally friendly industrial parks is not only a sustainable development mode, but also a green development model.
Is the "foreign garbage" gone?
Although the mainland no longer accepts "foreign garbage," this does not mean that the foreign garbage will disappear, and it will continue to be produced by human beings, so without the mainland as a buyer, where will the waste of Western countries be disposed of? Western countries have set their sights on Africa, India, and other developing countries in Southeast Asia.
Because of the needs of economic development, these developing countries have to accept the garbage of the developed countries in the West. Of course, these countries also have to bear the environmental consequences of the transfer of pollution. As a result, developing countries, including India and Malaysia, began to follow the mainland's lead and announced a similar ban on "foreign garbage" to say no to "foreign garbage".
Because many countries are no longer willing to accept foreign garbage from Western countries, it can be said that Western countries have various "riot" operations in order to deal with waste and garbage.
For example, Sri Lankan customs returned a batch of foreign garbage from the United Kingdom. This is because Sri Lanka's original goal was to import used mattresses and blankets from the UK to recycle cotton and springs. But the UK took smuggled goods and turned them into dozens of boxes of non-recyclable medical waste.
From the mainland's ban on the recycling of foreign garbage to the present, the garbage disposal problem in Western countries can no longer be solved directly with money. They used to rely on the mainland and other countries for a long time to deal with garbage, but their own garbage treatment capacity has not been developed, and if it is handed over to other countries for disposal, it will have to be sorted and recycled, harmless treatment, etc., and the cost of treatment will also increase more than ten times.
The recycling dilemma of the "garbage country".
The United States, Japan, and other countries that claim to be the cleanest in the world are clean not because they produce less garbage, but because they send garbage overseas, and after the mainland began to clean up foreign garbage, the United States demanded that the mainland immediately stop implementing and revise these measures and comply with the existing global waste trade standards.
The words are nice, but in fact, people just want us to help them deal with the accumulated garbage, otherwise the country will stink! The United States vainly tries to shift the responsibility for recycling garbage to us, and this is really an evasion of responsibility and shameless behavior.
Under the mainland's ban on foreign garbage, the United States still has not found a "receiving warehouse" that can always receive the garbage they produce, and the cleaning of the city is even more strained, and a large amount of garbage and waste has to be piled up on the streets.
This also makes us realize that exchanging lucid waters and lush mountains for gold and silver mountains can make temporary profits, but it is a real loss-making business for the long-term development and long-term interests of the country.
The change from importing "foreign garbage" to banning it can be said to be the awakening of the mainland's development and a protest against the unfair phenomenon of "foreign garbage".
The collapse of Western countries in the face of garbage is also the result of their own suffering. Do you know what kind of garbage disposal methods are available on the mainland? Do you know what kind of cost-effective behavior the mainland has come up with for development?