OUT OF SIGHT

U.S. Ships ‘One Million Tons’ of Plastic Waste to Poor Countries Every Year

It’s being sent away to countries with poor environmental regulation and cheap labor to sift through the trash.

The U.S. ships hundreds of thousands of tons of plastic to poorly regulated developing countries around the globe every year, according to a new investigation by The Guardian. The equivalent of 68,000 shipping containers of American plastic was reportedly sent from the U.S. to developing countries last year, with new hot spots including Bangladesh, Laos, Ethiopia, and Senegal. The countries are being chosen because they have limited environmental regulation and cheap labor to sort through the trash. “We are trying so desperately to get rid of this stuff that we are looking for new frontiers,” said Jan Dell, who works with investors and environmental groups to reduce plastic pollution. “The path of least resistance is to put it on a ship and send it somewhere else—and the ships are going further and further to find some place to put it.”