Chinanews, Beijing, Jan. 23 – Recently, some Chinese media reported about British enterprises dumping garbage into China, saying that while China exported some 16 billion pounds worth of goods to Britain every year, Britain dumped 1.9 million tons of garbage into China every year in return. The report aroused high concern from the authorities. An official from the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) said that they would pay close attention to the development of the situation.

 

The China Youth Daily reported that ten days previously, some Chinese media quoted news from British Sky TV as saying that Britain, dubbed “Europe’s garbage bin,” had dumped huge amounts of garbage into China every year. In some places, the dumping had already caused serious environmental problems. In a small village called Lianjiao, in south China, large amounts of garbage were seen in the village. The ships that carried the garbage included Emma Maersk, the world's largest freighter.

 

The village, Lianjiao, which Chinese media mentioned in their report, is located in an industrial zone called Liannao situated in Nanhai District in Foshan City, Guangdong. It has developed from a waste plastic material processing center in the 1970s to become a waste material distribution center. Every year, some 200,000 tons of waste plastic materials are processed there, over 80% of them collected in China and the rest from other countries. So far, reporters have found some garbage made from waste plastic materials which are forbidden to be imported to China, the SEPA official said.

 

Local authorities found that the industrial zone did not have any official document that allowed it to import waste materials.