Huge import restrictions placed on recycled goods heading to China will not hurt Monmouthshire County Council’s recycling strategy, the authority has said.

China will impose strict import rules from next year, as well as a full ban on plastic and paper waste, a move industry figures have said will ‘cause chaos’ given that China is the world’s largest recipient of recycled waste.

New quality guidelines mean President Xi Jingping’s country will only accept uncontaminated waste, with spoil rates cut from January 1 to below 0.5 percent from 1.5 percent, which previously applied.

Monmouthshire County Council’s recycling track record places the county firmly in the Welsh top three, with Wales also being second in the world rankings with almost 65 per cent of waste being recycled.

The new Chinese rules could see most of the 3m tonnes of cardboard sent to China being rejected and shipped back.

MCC said the swingeing changes are less likely to hit the council, as its current recycling strategy relies on higher quality waste being sold to a wider market.

Carl Touhig, head of recycling at MCC, said the county council insists on recycled goods being re-used in the UK, where possible, a strategy which may insulate against any quakes in the Chinese market.

“Monmouthshire’s materials collected for recycling are sent to the recovery specialists Suez UK at Avonmouth,” he said. “Sixty per cent of the recyclable material coming from Monmouthshire is used in UK markets, and we stipulate in contracts that end markets should be UK-based, wherever possible.

“Recyclate is a global commodity and much of the paper and plastics collected in the UK are sorted and sold into the Chinese market. China’s growing middle-class economy means that more recyclate is produced internally and they need less external input from the UK, EU and US.”

Mr Touhig added that MCC’s diverse list of buyers provided a cushion against the strict changes being implemented in China.

“High quality recyclate will always have an end market, and changes to the way we collect our recycling in the future will put us in an even much stronger position.

“While the changes in China will place additional challenges for end markets for UK recycling, they also provide huge opportunities for UK manufacturing to develop new products and use more of this resource in the domestic market.”

Recycled steel and aluminium collected in Monmouthshire is mainly re-used in UK mills; glass is recycled in Cwmbran, whilst garden waste is processed in Abergavenny, a council spokesman confirmed.

Much paper and card collected in Monmouthshire is processed in the UK and sold to a number of countries in eastern and south-eastern Asia.

The MCC spokesman added that 60 per cent of all waste collected in the county is reused across the UK.

 China’s decision comes as part of president Xi Jinping’s ‘Beautiful China’ drive, in which he railed against foreign waste, as China works to drastically cut the 7.3m tonnes in plastic waste it imported last year alone – two-thirds of which came from the UK.

An industry group, Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) convened three industry round tables (in England, Northern Ireland and Wales), bringing together representatives from across the recycling supply chain to begin to explore possible ways of addressing the challenge resulting from China’s announcement to impose restrictions on imported materials for recycling.

A WRAP spokesperson said, “The meetings we convened were extremely well attended, with key players from right across the recycling supply chain including brands, retailers, manufacturers, re-processors, trade bodies, as well as governments.

“The dialogue was constructive and engaged and we felt demonstrated a shared commitment to seeking solutions to the proposed Chinese import restrictions.

“We are now collating the reports from the meetings to be able to report back to the attendees and the sector in general and make some recommendations for next steps.

“Our aim is use this as a real opportunity to focus on quality and to secure a thriving supply chain, which benefits the UK both economically and environmentally.”??