How can Kensington & Chelsea justify sending the borough's plastic waste to China for recycling?

Question

They send their paper to Kent for recycling, so I can only assume it must be cheaper to send the plastic to China but surely it defeats the whole environmental purpose of separating and collecting recyclable rubbish in the first place.

Answer 1

surprisingly... it is cheaper and therefor saves the tax payers money, we dont have that much free space, or that many advance recycling plants in engalnd... is depressin but true, so if we sendit to china we save alot of money that we would pay to english people who have expensive techniques...

Answer 2

I don't see how they can justify sending the plastic to China unless that is where the recycled plastic is used. If the recycled stuff comes back to Europe then it isn't good. The idea about recyling is that is good for the environment to do so. If you use losts of fuel sending it all around the world then that is bad for the environment so you have cancelled out the good action of recycling.

Answer 3

It is almost free to send to China, as we import container loads of stuff from them which would otherwise go back empty.

Plastic recycling in China is less restrictive health & saftey so is carried out as a cottage industry. Most is re-used locally in China.
Paper recycling in China is well managed and clean.

Answer 4

How can the residents of the Borough justify their Chelsea Tractors? Does anyone there even care?

Answer 5

I've got a mate who is in the wheelie bin cleaning business and what you have said isn't even the tip of the iceberg, apparently. There could be a big storm brewing.

Answer 6

Blame Tony Blair and his lot for this,,it's called Political correctness,,he has definately lost the plot