You sort your recycling, leave it to be collected – and then what? From councils burning the lot to foreign landfill sites overflowing with British rubbish, Oliver Franklin-Wallis reports on a global waste crisis.

Plastic waste ready for inspection before being sent to Malaysia; the UK produces more refuse than it can process at home – about 1.1kg per person per day. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images.

Surabaya: Indonesia's Customs agency has seized 210 tonnes of "toxic" garbage at the port in Surabaya and is preparing to ship eight containers of material back to Australia.

Since 1992, China has imported 45 per cent of the world's plastic waste. But at the start of this year, the country shut the door on much of that plastic, leaving countries scrambling to fend for themselves.

Now a new study suggests there are deep repercussions to China's new policy: By the year 2030, an estimated 111 million tonnes of plastic waste will be "displaced" and have nowhere to go.

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesia will re-export illegal plastic waste entering the country, Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya said, following news of the illegal import of plastic waste in Gresik, East Java.

The British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur has expressed its deep concern over the illegal trade in plastic wastes and declared support for Malaysia's stand on the issue.

The Malaysian Ministry of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment, and Climate Change (MESTECC), has announced it will be shipping back 450 tonnes of contaminated plastic waste contained in ten containers, while running an inspection process on more than 50 containers that were brought to the country illegally.

India has banned imports of waste plastic a year after China, the world’s biggest importer of scrap plastic implemented a similar ban on western imports.

Taking an important step towards tackling the menace of plastic waste in India, the government has completely banned import of solid plastic waste/scrap into the country. India generates 25,940 tonnes of plastic waste every day.

Tokyo, Feb. 27 (Jiji Press)--Japan will cosponsor a proposal to ban imports and exports of dirty plastic waste under the Basel Convention, which restricts trading in harmful waste, government officials have said.

The 11th Meeting of the Open-Ended Working Group of the Basel Convention, the world's only international treaty on waste control, concluded with widespread and growing support for a proposal by Norway to add plastic waste to the list of wastes subject to the trade controls under the convention. The proposal is seen as a key mechanism to stem the tide of marine debris and plastic litter. It would add plastic waste to Annex II, a list of wastes for "special consideration" under the Convention that requires notification by exporting countries and consent by importing countries prior to export.

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• Recycling Today