German Environment Minister Calls out China for Plastic Waste

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): While on a visit to Taicang on the Yangtze River near the Chinese metropolis of Shanghai on Wednesday, Germany's environment minister called on Beijing to take more vigorous action to prevent plastic pollution.

"We have a problem with plastic worldwide, and China is one of the biggest plastic producers," Environment Minister Steffi Lemke said during her visit, aimed at enhancing German-Chinese cooperation in environmental protection and nature conservation.

"Our oceans are drowning in plastic waste, microplastics are endangering our health," she said in Taicang, which is at the mouth of the Yangtze close to the Yellow Sea.

India, the United States and Germany also produce a lot of plastic, especially cheap plastic products that are only used once and then thrown out, she noted.

"We have to get away from this throwaway mentality because the pollution problem has become far too big," she explained.

The occasion for her trip was the 7th German-Chinese Environmental Forum. Lemke's counterpart Huang Runqiu was expected from the Chinese side.

Ahead of the forum, she said she hoped to find support for a global plastics agreement currently being negotiated at the UN level.

"We need more recycling, but above all we need to limit plastic production. If plastic production continues to increase like it has in recent years, the problem won't be solved," the minister said.

 It is the first such German-Chinese environmental forum since the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the German government's China Strategy, China has a "special responsibility" for the global climate. Without China - the largest CO2 emitter and producer of renewable energies - the climate crisis cannot be contained, Lemke emphasized.

She said she wanted to advocate in China that Germany and China work together for progress in the recycling industry, for example.

Courtesy: www.msn.com