$21m of NZ waste turned away from ChinaKevin Stent/Fairfax NZ Plastic bags are the biggest problem for Wellington's recycling effortsA Chinese environmental crackdown means $21 million of New Zealand waste a year now has to find a new home – much of it in another developing country. The Ministry for the Environment's most recent figures show we sent $21m worth of waste to China in 2016, made up of $8.2m of plastic, $3.1m of slag, and $9.7m of paper. READ MORE:* China's waste import ban makes recycling costly for NZ businesses* Recycling: the last resort before landfill* CuriousCity: Plastic bags & pongy milk bottles, what really happens to recycling? The Chinese notification, issued in July, said the country forbade the importation of 24 kinds of solid waste, including plastics, waste from living sources, vanadium slag, unsorted waste paper and waste textiles. Christchurch City Council's John Mackie said it was working on what to do with its waste as a result of the China changes.

Source: Stuff January 04, 2018 03:22 UTC