It might seem odd that countries would agree to import plastic waste from other countries, but many do so for the cheap materials or to feed specific manufacturing processes.
Environmentally, the trade in plastics has often been a concern, as it allows rich countries to effectively “dump” waste on poorer countries with weaker waste management systems.
The good news is that trade in plastic waste has fallen by more than two-thirds over the last decade. You can see this reduction in the chart.
China has been the biggest driver of this. It was once a large importer, but after a steep decline in trade in 2016 and a ban in 2018, many countries lost their largest export market.
In 2024, around 5 million tonnes of plastic waste were traded worldwide. For context, that is around 1% of the total plastic waste generated. What’s perhaps surprising is that most trade is now between high-income countries, which reduces the risk that this waste leaks into the environment.
Where this page came from
This page was imported from Our World in Data. “The global trade of plastic waste has fallen dramatically in the last decade” by Hannah Ritchie, Veronika Samborska, published by Our World in Data under CC BY 4.0. Changed here: set as a page, its interactive charts shown as pictures. Data from third parties keeps its own licence.
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Licence: CC BY 4.0 · Adapted from ourworldindata.org
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