Driving Forces Behind Global Trade with Plastic Waste - Based on Reported Trade Statistics

Abstract

Plastics are today a key material necessary for modern society to function, from everyday products to industrial products. At present only 10% of plastics globally are recycled, and it is vital that plastics are processed correctly and not just dumped somewhere. As different countries have different stringency in their environmental regulations, some use this as a competitive advantage. Certain countries generate a lot of plastic waste but do not handle it themselves, they instead export it to somewhere far away to be disposed of unsafely, creating a disparity between developed and developing countries, in a process that has been described in terms of pollution havens. This study investigates the trends in global plastic waste trade through the lens of differences in environmental regulations and regional imbalances in container flows. Furthermore, its aim is to investigate whether they are the key driving forces and highlight the processes causing the trade. The data used in the report is mainly from the UN Comtrade database of world trade with goods with HS-code 3915. Data was collected for years 2000-2022. The results of the report show that, while there are some indications that environmental regulations and trade imbalances affect global plastic waste trade, there are multiple other driving forces which likely have a bigger impact – not least the need for raw cheap materials in developing countries’ industry. The study also shows how the Chinese import ban on plastic waste have had a clear impact on the global trade flow. To adequately handle the issue of plastic pollution, more effective international frameworks for regulating trade and recycling plastics are needed, as well as greater financial investments in the technology and systems necessary to process the increasing amounts of waste being generated..