Tag: China

China’s New Green Development Fund

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China’s first dedicated environmental fund, the National Green Development Fund, will mainly be used to invest in national strategic programs such as the green development of the Yangtze River region.

Chinas as already raised ¥88 billion, that’s $12.59 billion. The world’s biggest greenhouse gas producing country has been trying to diversify its funding sources for environmental programs; however, it has struggled to devise new financing systems to help pay the massive costs of cleaning up polluted soil and water.

As part of the Paris Climate Agreement, China pledged to cut the amount of CO2 emissions it produces per unit of GDP by 40 to 45 from 2005 to 2020. In its five-year plan, China also pledged to cut carbon intensity by 18 from 2015 to 2020.

China is Forcing the World to Rethink Recycling

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In 2017, China banned all plastic from entering the country. This single decision has disrupted the entire global flow of recycling. Stuff that once found its way to China is now ending up in Vietnam, Thailand, and most of all, Malaysia.

But those countries can’t process the amount of plastic China used to, and waste from the US, Europe, Japan, and beyond is piling up in small mountains.

China’s ban didn’t break the system, but it revealed just how broken it really is. In episode one of our Quartz’s video series Because China, they go to Malaysia, Shanghai, and New Jersey to figure out what is going on in the wild world of recycling.

Garbage Wars: Where Does the World’s Trash Go?

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You may not know it, but your trash probably travels more than you do. The moment a plastic container ends up in your recycling bin marks the beginning of a long trip halfway across the world.

The recycling journey, until recently, ended in China, where it was cleaned, crushed and transformed into raw material. But in 2018, Beijing decided it would no longer welcome the world’s trash. With the loss of their overseas dumping ground, rich countries turned to other markets, mainly in Southeast Asia.

Flooded with foreign trash, countries like Thailand and Malaysia eventually put their foot down, some even sending trash back to where it came from.