This is a story about recycling gone awry
and how claims of sustainability from
large companies are going up in flames.
Mustafa Nagar is a city 80 miles north of New Delhi.
The surrounding area is known for its sugar and paper mills.
Now it's taken on a much darker claim to fame as a dumping ground for ton after
ton of American plastic. This field of plastic is right behind a
village. There are children playing nearby.
We've walked through it. And surprisingly, most of this plastic
comes from overseas, mostly from the U.S.
and Canada. And one brand stands out.
Amazon. Literally, there are Amazon shipping bags all over
this field. How did this plastic waste from overseas
get here? Paper mills rely on imported waste paper
because it's cheaper than wood pulp. And India can't source enough paper for
recycling domestically. The problem is that plastic packaging
waste is often bundled with this waste paper.
It's estimated that as much as five hundred thousand tons of plastic waste
is coming into India every year. Much of that plastic ends up being used
as fueled by local industries, including paper and sugar mills.
Residents say they know when plastic was burned overnight because they usually
wake up to a layer of gray and black ash that coats, terraces, crops and anything
left outdoors. Vilma Devi is a longtime resident
who's developed health problems in the last few years because of pollution from
burning plastic
We're surrounded by paper
mills here in the city of Muzaffarnagar. Plumes of thick black smoke are billowing
from these facilities all around us. We don't know for sure what they're burning.
But experts say black smoke is one indication that plastic's being burned.
Rahul Kumar is an activist in a village in Muzaffarnagar.
He leads a group of eight volunteers working to raise awareness of air and
water pollution caused by the industrial burning of plastic.
Recycling is supposed to cut pollution and give valuable materials a second
life. But here the global recycling system's
failings are hard to deny. Labels reveal just how far the waste has
traveled. There's plastic trash from Nestlé,
Costco's Kirkland and Under Armour, all thrown out by U.S.
and Canadian consumers. Some 7000 miles away.
Still, some paper industry executives in Muzaffarnagar say the plastic that comes
with paper recycling isn't a problem. Pankaj Aggarwal runs a paper mill and is
chairman of the Paper Manufacturers Association for the State of Uttar
Pradesh. This is imported.
This is imported.
This is a mixed waste, but there is not much contamination.
You can see there is no plastic At a dump site close to Aggarwal's
paper mill, one plastic envelope with a United States Postal Service label
stood out. It had a name and address printed
directly on it. It had been shipped to Laurie Smyla,
who we later found out was a 73 year old retiree from Sloatsburg in Rockland
County, New York. We tracked her down from India.
Laurie, it's Oanh Ha from Bloomberg News.
Thanks so much for joining us from upstate New York.
So I found something that used to belong to you.
This is a United States Postal Service envelope that arrived in your house once
and we found it in this field. What do you make of it?
It's phenomenal because I know that I do receive packages on a regular basis.
I'm sure that one contained something I ordered.
The question is how in the world did it end up
in India? Well, we as consumers, we think that
when we put something into the recycling bin.
I mean, what's the expectation there? And I'm wondering how you feel about
that. For years, we've thought that everything
that we're doing is the right thing. But obviously, that wasn't the case.
I feel sorry for anyone who lives within a five mile radius of the site you're
standing on. Amazon wouldn't comment on the presence
of its packaging inMuzzafarnagar, but in a statement, the company said it was
committed to minimizing waste and helping customers recycle their
packaging. The Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control
Board that oversees Muzaffarnagar said it fined nearly half of the more than 30
mills in the city for burning plastic and not managing the ash from their
milling process just in October.
Still, the problem isn't going away.
The grandmother worries what the
pollution from overseas will do to the next generation.