China will not accept textile or plastic waste from the rest of the world any more. The country used to take in more than half of the world’s rubbish, importing almost nine million metric tons of recyclable plastics a year. It started in the 1980s, helping to fuel the burgeoning economy, and grew into its own billion-dollar industry.

Unfortunately, this resulted in some of the worst pollution in the world, especially air pollution. People died and as a result there was a crackdown on pollution. Thousands of factories that didn’t meet environmental standards were closed. Since then China has been a leader in renewable energy, developing solar and wind technology, and building some of the world’s largest farms.

The United States, United Kingdom and the European Union were among those who exported most of their waste to China. Other Asian countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand have seen a spike in recorded plastics imported, showing that western countries are simply finding somewhere else to dump their waste. However these countries have nowhere near the capacity or the infrastructure to deal with the numbers involved. The textile industry is one of the biggest polluters in the world, with clothing production having doubled in the last 15 years.