, Columnist
China's War on Foreign Garbage
Imported recycling has been a boon for China. So why ban it?
Jackpot.
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For more than 30 years, imports of recycled goods have fueled China's manufacturing boom. On Wednesday, the government announced that it'd had enough. By the end of the year, it told the World Trade Organization, it would stop accepting most recycled plastics, paper, textiles and other products from overseas. The decision, it said, was part of a campaign against "foreign garbage" that harms public health and the environment.
It's a crowd-pleasing stand. But far from solving China's environmental problems, this crackdown will actually worsen them -- and do so at the expense of jobs and economic growth around the world.