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A woman sorts plastic recycling in China. Millions of tonnes of plastics are wasted globally every year.

A massive increase in biodegradable plastic production in China is outpacing

the country's ability to degrade the materials, according to a new report
published by the charity Greenpeace.

China - the world's largest producer of plastic waste - introduced bans earlier
this year on several types of non-degradable single-use plastics, prompting
manufacturers to ramp up production of biodegradable versions.
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According to Greenpeace, 36 companies in China have planned or built new
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biodegradable plastic manufacturing facilities, adding production capacity of
more than 4.4 million tonnes per year - a more than sevenfold increase in less
than 12 months.

China's e-commerce industry is on track to generate an estimated 5 million

tonnes of biodegradable plastic waste per year by 2025, when the country's
single-use plastic bans come into effect nationwide, the charity said.

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Biodegradable plastics can be broken down by living organisms, but most childcare
require specific industrial treatment at high temperatures to be degraded
within six months. Le in landfills under normal circumstances, the materials
can take much longer to begin to break down and will still release carbon into
the atmosphere.

"In the absence of controlled composting facilities, most biodegradable

plastics end up in landfills, or worse, in rivers and the ocean," said
Greenpeace's East Asia plastics researcher Dr Molly Zhongnan Jia.

"Switching from one type of plastic to another cannot solve the plastics
pollution crisis that we're facing," she said.
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Chinese president Xi Jinping has in recent speeches stressed the importance

of reducing plastic waste, but many major Chinese cities have little or no
infrastructure in place to cope with the expansion of biodegradable plastics
production.

The BBC attempted to contact China's ministry of ecology and environment

for comment.

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One of the main challenges with biodegradable plastics is confusion about

what biodegradable means. Most compostable plastics cannot be put into
ordinary household recycling or degraded in home composting bins - meaning
consumers oen don't have any route to get biodegradable packaging to the
kinds of industrial facilities capable of processing it.

"It is really important to have clear infrastructure for what we call 'end-of-life'.
Plastic is single-use unless it can be recycled, or, even better, reused," said Dr
Rachael Rothman, the co-director of the Grantham Centre for Sustainable
Futures at the University of Sheffield. Microplastics, drugs and food - how
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"Just because a plastic is biodegradable, that doesn't mean it is not single
use," she said. "The worry is that if people think a material is biodegradable it
gives them a licence to litter, and that litter can still have a negative impact on
the environment before it fully degrades."

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Football phrases
In 2017, China banned imports of plastic waste from other countries 15 sayings from around the world

Another category of plastics made fully or partially from biological resources -

oen referred to as "bioplastics" - are not necessarily biodegradable, adding to
potential confusion for consumers.
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"This is a global problem, absolutely," said Dr Rothman. "The UK has been US judge says parents owe
consulting on bio-degradable and compostable plastics. While there is a son over trashed porn 2
standard for compostable plastics, developing a universal standard for collection
biodegradable plastics is incredibly difficult due to the range of biodegradable
plastics and the environmental conditions they may end up in if littered.
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"It is important to consider what the purpose of the biodegradable plastic is 'clearly' behind SolarWinds 3
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A study published in October in the journal Sciences Advances, which
examined data from 2016, estimated that the US was the world's leading Woman 'crushed' by Japan
plastic waste producer that year, followed by India and then China. Taken town vote aer alleged sex 5
collectively, the EU nations would be in second place, despite having only assault by mayor
about 40% of the population of India and China.

The US ships large quantities of its plastic waste to other countries. In 2017 US evictions crisis: 'My pride
alone, China took in 7 million tonnes of plastic rubbish from Europe, Japan has gone. We're pretty much 6
and the US. homeless now'

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China has since banned the import of 24 different grades of rubbish, but other lockdown
countries including Malaysia, Turkey, the Philippines and Indonesia, which
already have to tackle large quantities of their own plastic waste, have picked
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Meet the people who fought back against foreign plastic waste

The Greenpeace report published on Thursday warns that replacing single-use

plastics with high-volume production of various biodegradable alternatives is
not the solution to the plastics waste problem.

"This 'biodegradables rush' has to stop. We need to take a cautious look at the
effect and potential risks of mainstreaming these materials, and make sure we
invest in solutions that actually reduce plastic waste," said Greenpeace's Dr
Jia.

"Reusable packaging systems and a reduction in overall plastic use are much
more promising strategies to keep plastic out of landfills and the
environment," she said.

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