Foreign waste exporters should take responsibility for their own waste rather than always rely on other countries to deal with their garbage, according to People’s Daily.

European countries and the U.S. are now targeting Southeast Asian countries as a new destination for their waste, as China banned 24 kinds of solid waste to protect China’s environmental interests and people’s health starting this year.

For a long time, China has been regarded as the world’s largest importer of foreign waste. Since 2012, the UK has exported 2.7 million tons of plastic waste to China, accounting for two thirds of its total export. And the US exported over 1 million tons of plastic waste to China solely in 2017.

However, the ban now puts waste exporters in a situation of great pressure.

The U.S. National Public Radio (NPR) reported that the growing amount of garbage in the U.S. has created a bit of chaos. A director with a UK garbage recycling plant also said that they do not know how to deal with all the garbage.

Under the circumstances, it is urgent for the countries to build garbage recycling mechanisms.

With technological innovation, turning waste into wealth is possible. Metals including gold, cadmium, nickel, and zinc for instance can be extracted from electronic waste, and plastics can be used to produce fuel oil.

Moreover, many European countries and the U.S. already have good laws and regulations on garbage recycling.

Therefore, Garbage recycling is not an impossible problem for the countries.

The main problem lies in their attitude. They are used to getting rid of their garbage while turning a blind eye to harmless disposal methods.

Shifting the garbage to other countries is pointless, as it does nothing to help to eradicate the problem of pollution. Instead of relying on other countries, the garbage exporters should take responsibility for their own garbage.