Amazon Packages Burn In India
Tons of plastic mostly from the US and Canada end up at a dump in Muzaffarnagar, a city north of New Delhi. But India banned almost all imports of plastic waste in 2019. Bloomberg's K. Oanh Ha investigates the failings of the global recycling system.
Plastic wrappers and parcels that start off in Americans' recycling bins end up at illegal dumpsites and industrial furnaces — and inside the lungs of people in Muzaffarnagar.
Muzaffarnagar, a city about 80 miles north of New Delhi, is famous in India for two things: colonial-era freedom fighters who helped drive out the British and the production of jaggery, a cane sugar product boiled into goo at some 1,500 small sugar mills in the area. Less likely to feature in tourism guides is Muzaffarnagar's new status as the final destination for tons of supposedly recycled American plastic.
On a November afternoon, mosquitoes swarmed above plastic trash piled 6 feet high off one of the city's main roads. A few children picked through the mounds, looking for discarded toys while unmasked waste pickers sifted for metal cans or intact plastic bottles that could be sold. Although much of it was sodden or shredded, labels hinted at how far these items had traveled: Kirkland-brand almonds from Costco, Nestlé's Purina-brand dog food containers, the wrapping for Trader Joe's mangoes.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2022-india-plastic-recycling-pollution/
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