The Plastic Waste Trade

Cathy Zhang ’26 and Maia Wijnberg ’26

Ellen Chen ’25

Many developed countries, such as the US, export plastic waste to developing ones overseas. The export of trash to countries with lower labor or energy costs causes the large production and consumption of plastic. Because the wealthy countries that consume the most plastic get rid of their plastic waste this way, the plastic waste trade leaves citizens of developing countries with all the detrimental impacts of plastic waste.

  In 2020, developing countries imported 1.6 million tons of plastic waste from nations in Europe, North America, and East Asia (Ritchie, 2022). Since developing countries have lower GDPs on average, their waste management systems are undeniably less sophisticated, making plastic more likely to leak into the ocean. A country’s waste system quality and population size are two main factors in the amount of waste a country contributes to ocean pollution. For this reason, the plastic waste trade is undoubtedly linked to marine litter as trash is transported to places with a high likelihood of entering the ocean. 

The impacts of plastic waste are incredibly harmful to the people of nations who import the trash. In the first half of 2018, Malaysia imported 500,000 tons of plastic waste (Khare et al., 2022). Many illegal factories were established to burn these vast amounts of waste, and residents consistently reported smells coming from them while others developed tracheal diseases. Individuals experienced symptoms such as coughing, fatigue, and difficulty breathing because of the plastic burning. In Indonesia, villages in East Java have become dumpsites for imported waste, where the waste is either discarded or incinerated. As a result, the members of nearby communities must constantly breathe in toxic fumes from the burning. Plastic that enters the water, soil, and air also leaves microplastics which can cause hormonal disorders and carcinogenic effects. Some people have filed court cases to fight for clean water and a safe environment for their community.

All these adverse effects on the people of developing countries are unfair since they are directly caused by wealthy countries that simply avoid the same effects by moving them to other places. So, individuals living in impacted communities must face health and safety issues in their everyday lives. 

To raise awareness of this issue, people in both developed and developing countries must acknowledge this trade and understand its environmental impact on entire communities. Though organizations such as the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) are actively campaigning against the plastic waste trade, it is still a hugely overlooked topic that affects many individuals globally.

References

Global Plastics Trade. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. (2022, November 10). 

https://unctad.org/data-visualization/global-plastics-trade-reached-nearly-1.2-trillion-2021 

Jambeck, J. R. et al. (2015, February 13). Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. Science. 

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1260352 

Khare, D. et al. (2022, December 10). We are now plastic farmers. Break Free From Plastic. 

https://www.breakfreefromplastic.org/2022/12/10/we-are-now-plastic-farmers/ 

Marine plastic pollution. International Union for Conservation of Nature. (2023, November 29). 

https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-brief/marine-

plasticpollution#:~:text=At%20least%2014%20million%20tons,causes%20severe%20injuries%20and%20death. 

Plastic waste trade. EIA Reports. (n.d.). 

https://reports.eia-international.org/a-new-global-treaty/plastic-waste-trade/ 

Ritchie, H., & Roser, M. (2024, March 18). Ocean plastics: How much do rich countries contribute by shipping their waste overseas?. Our World in Data. 

https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-waste-trade