LOVE LETTERS TO TANZANIA: The dark side of recycling

To readers born on July 20: Happy Birthday! May your loved ones make you feel appreciated today, even though your birthday is shared by another 21 million global citizens. July 20 is also the Feast day of St Margaret of Antioch. Some mark it as Moon Day because on this day in 1969 the first human being stepped out of Apollo 11 and onto the surface of the moon. American confectionary manufacturers promote it as Lollipop Day – keeping dentists in business. To 600 million people who enjoy intellectual challenges, July 20 signifies International Chess Day. Naturally, it is also a day in history on which battles and rebellions began, disasters claimed casualties, pacts and treaties were signed, sports records broken and famous people born.

Few global citizens took notice of a press briefing in China on July 20, 2017. An environmental protection ministry official announced maximum contamination thresholds for foreign waste imports to protect the environment and Chinese recycling workers’ health. Effectively, this constituted a ban on the kind of waste many countries sent to China, causing a waste crisis when it came into effect.

How much waste nations export was eye-opening for consumers who honour the privilege of municipal garbage collection by unfailingly separating recyclable and non-recyclable items, trusting that recyclables are turned into new products in the nation they call home. Who expects their empty juice bottle or food can to embark on a journey overseas? Rashida Yosufzai reported that Australia used to send over 600,000 tonnes of recyclables to China every year: twelve times the weight of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Such volume makes the recent ban of single-use plastic bags in my home state appear farcical. Among the countries exporting their trash to China were renowned environmental leaders.

Not much has changed in garbage ethics since 2014, when Agbogbloshie in Ghana made headlines as a dump for global e-waste - a toxic place where slum dwellers extract valuable materials from scrapped devices and develop life-threatening health problems. It is illegal to ship hazardous waste out of countries like Australia, but the deliveries to poorer countries appear to continue, ignored by authorities. Helping rich nations solve rubbish problems is a lucrative business which attracts garbage smugglers.

China’s import ban forced wealthy waste exporting nations to face the shameful truth that we have a habit of exporting problems to the less fortunate. Our rubbish contributes to inequality and exploitation. We are guilty of shipping the unwanted by-products of thoughtless consumption overseas to avoid having to pay for fairer, more ethical solutions. Our efficient recycling collection systems did not prevent our personal trash from being burned or buried. Instead, cargo ships burning fossil fuels took it on a journey to pollute someone else’s environment.

Governments are now debating whether to invest in domestic recycling facilities and force local manufacturers to use recycled content. They are contemplating incentives to encourage companies to develop concepts to reduce and reuse more waste.

We must all confront the sheer volume of rubbish produced and that it will not all be recycled, no matter in which country. As pollution poisons some of us directly and fish ingest the tiny fragments of plastic rubbish floating in oceans and lakes, we, on top of the food chain, should be very concerned about where our personal rubbish ends up.

Eventually, the state of the planet will force consumers to sacrifice some convenience and most of not all single-use products. Instead of equating high consumption with wealth and status, we might need to include in our sense of self-worth how educated we are about the impact of our waste on our global neighbours and accept responsibility for the problems we create. We must take more pride in making socially conscious choices.

Governments and citizens must accept that the rubbish resulting from growing prosperity is each nation’s own responsibility.