Impact of Global Waste Trade on Health
Will Chun ’25
Syd Robinow ’25
A single American, on average, produces 1,650 pounds of trash annually. Multiply this by 40, the number of students in a single dorm, and you get 66,000 pounds of trash. That’s equivalent to the weight of roughly 500 humans! The world produces 2.12 billion tons of waste annually. Much of this waste stems from recycled plastics and donated clothing. People who recycle or donate used clothing often feel morally righteous for supporting a “greater cause.” Even though donating clothes and recycling are effective as conservation efforts, they often end up contributing to an unintended “greater cause”—the global waste trade.
The global waste trade is the international waste buying, selling, and movement. Developed countries often export their waste to generate revenue from the sale of recyclable goods or to reduce domestic landfilling. Countries typically import waste for similar economic benefits, and recycled plastics are cheaper than virgin plastics and can be fed into manufacturing (Ritchie, 2022). However, developed nations frequently exploit this international waste trading system. Even though first-world countries can manage this waste, they burden underdeveloped countries with toxic waste out of economic greed and convenience. Therefore, the trash produced by developed nations often floods ecosystems in developing countries and overwhelms their communities. In one instance, an Italian businessman seeking to bypass EU economic regulations generated $4.3 million by exporting 4,000 tons of toxic waste to Nigeria (Okaru, 2011). He intentionally mislabeled this toxic garbage as fertilizers, which leached into the Koko water system, resulting in nineteen villagers’ deaths.
Most often, people living in developed countries suffer extreme health effects from this hazardous waste trade, including cancers and reproductive health disorders. Lay Peng Pua, a villager from Malaysia, noted, “People around me were always falling sick. There was always a strange smell in the air. From March to July 2018, we found 40 such factories near our homes. All of them were illegal” (Khare & Wong, 2022). Additionally, underdeveloped countries are incapable of properly handling, recycling, or treating the toxic wastes, so they do what’s easiest—they burn it. Incinerating toxic waste is even more harmful to the environment and the health of nearby residents than leaving it as is because it releases even more pollutants into the air that contribute to respiratory cancers and global warming (Sharma, 2013).
So what is being done to prevent this? Firstly, increasing concern has sprouted among countries. Thailand, for example, plans to eliminate all waste imports by 2025 (Khare & Wong, 2022). Furthermore, on December 1st, 2022, the European Parliament Environmental Committee voted in favor of a ban on EU waste exports and stronger safeguarding measures for intra-EU plastic waste shipments (Khare & Wong, 2022). In addition, on November 17th, 2023, European lawmakers agreed to ban plastic waste exports outside of the OECD group, composed of mainly rich countries, by the middle of 2026 (Niranjan, 2023).
Despite these new waste trade concerns, developed nations still exploit the waste trade system and turn underdeveloped nations into landfills. The effects are catastrophic, and they include exponential increases in cancer, respiratory diseases, reproductive disorders, and greenhouse gas emissions.
References:
Devayani Khare, P. C. O.-A. P., & Pui Yi Wong, P. C.-W. T. (Asia-P. (2023, January 27). We are now Plastic
Farmers. Break Free From Plastic. https://www.breakfreefromplastic.org/2022/12/10/we-are-now-plastic-farmers/
Niranjan, A. (2023, November 17). EU agrees to ban exports of waste plastic to poor countries. The Guardian.
Okaru, Valentina O. (2011). "The Basil Convention: Controlling the Movement of Hazardous Wastes to Developing
Countries". Fordham Environmental Law Review. 6th. 4 (2): 138.
Ritchie, Hannah. (2022) - “Ocean plastics: How much do rich countries contribute by shipping their waste
overseas?” OurWorldInData.org. https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-waste-trade
Sharma R, Sharma M, Sharma R, Sharma V. The impact of incinerators on human health and environment. Rev
Environ Health. 2013;28(1):67-72. doi: 10.1515/reveh-2012-0035. PMID: 23612530.
