UK recycling group warns members of quality crackdown in China

The Recycling Association, an organization that represents the independent waste and recycling industry in England, has sent a warning to its members that Chinese customs inspectors are requiring much higher-quality standards for shipments.

In a posting, the Recycling Association adds that Chinese Customs’ authorities are using X-ray machines to check every container entering the country.

The crackdown on quality is part of China’s National Sword program, which is set to run through most of this year. Through the program, customs agents are putting greater emphasis on preventing the importation of waste and are focusing on container shipments of plastic scrap and recovered fiber.

The Recycling Association adds that at locations where X-ray machines are not available, containers will be opened for examination and all containers will be weighed to verify their weights.

The examinations also will check the level of nonfibre impurities and excessive moisture in bales of paper.

Simon Ellin, chief executive of the Recycling Association, says, “The National Sword programme shows the importance of our Quality First campaign, and we will be pushing the quality message strongly at our Quality First conference in London on 5 April.

“As I will say in my presentation at the conference, the U.K. competes with other countries around the world to provide China with fibre and plastics, and we have to ensure that the material is not only legally compliant, but is the best available so that we will still have a market for material we cannot use in the U.K.

“Our Quality First campaign is calling for the adoption of EN643 as the standard, which only allows for 1.5 percent outthrow. National Sword shows the need for this standard to be adopted.”

Craig Robinson, Cycle Link’s managing director, says, “We are warning our suppliers of these heightened inspections and letting them know that their containers will undergo an X-ray or visual inspection.

“But this should be a warning to the U.K., that the Chinese are not prepared to accept substandard material. It isn’t just about them receiving material they don’t want, but it is also a public health issue when it comes to moisture.

“Chinese customs have told us that excessive moisture on paper bales can lead to bacterial and fungal problems and they do not want to be importing wet material into their country,” Robinson adds.