The main destination of US plastic waste is Mexico; NGOs ask to attend this “emergency situation”
(MEXICO – NGOs).- The export levels of plastic waste from the United States to Latin America have increased since 2018, with 2021 being the year in which the largest amount of US garbage was exported to countries in the region .
According to data from the Last Beach Cleanup, an environmental organization, as of October of last year, the US had sent more than 89,824,167 kilograms of plastic waste to nations in the area, some of which received double the amount in 2020.
For its part, an investigation by member organizations of the Global Alliance for Alternatives to Incineration (GAIA) warned that in 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic , exports of plastic waste from the United States to Latin American countries increased by more than 100%.
They also warned that the region is becoming an emerging destination for global plastic waste, after China stopped this type of imports in 2018 to protect its territory from pollution.
The situation led GAIA to publish a statement last December in which it demanded that the governments of the region take measures in an “emergency.”
In Colombia those who are dedicated to the garbage business allege that the import of waste constitutes a source of work (Photo: EFE)
The main destination of plastic waste is Mexico , which from January to October 2021 received about 60,503,460 kilos, which is equivalent to about 57 containers per day.
However, tons of garbage were also shipped during 2021 to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic , and even Venezuela .
This is the case of some such as Honduras , which has had environmental differences with Guatemala due to the issue of garbage and that until November 2021 received 6,127,221 kilos of plastic waste, more than double the 2,250,593 kilos it received in all of 2020.
While in El Salvador , which has few garbage processing facilities, it received some 1,932,206 kg in November 2021 alone.
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