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Date: Wed, 10 Sep 97 13:24 WET DST From: FRIEDMAN.FRED@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV (Fred Friedman) Subject: Re: Plastic bags (Marilyn)
Sept. 10, 1997
Dear Marilyn,
You are undoubtedly right! Some plastic bags are exported. In 1991, 8 million tonnes of mixed plastics were exported, doubtless including many plastic bags from groceries/supermarkets. However, the fact that most plastic bags after 1992 or 1993 (depending on geography) newly used in the US were partly made or wholly made or ecycled plastics, some of which were the LDPE or LLDPE recycled bags of the previous turnaround, suggests that there is no one answer.
What you have hit on is a well assumed, but rarely documented belief that the export market is a safety valve for recyclables whose markets are either underdeveloped, flooded, or priced uneconomically.
I have documentation of plastic wastes being exported to Asian countries by the US, and African countries from Portugal, Germany and other European states.
As time has passed and markets have matured, I think that it is safe to say that plastic bags are increasingly recycled domstically (except in cases of out and out fraud dumping), but that the export market remains a safety valve, particularly for paper and plastics, and particularly from Germany and from the US.
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