Styrofoam overload

In this photo from the 1990s (exact year unknown), a man transports a huge bundle of Styrofoam that is to be recycled in Guangzhou. China used to be the world’s biggest consumer of scrap. In 2016, the country accounted for about 51 percent of the world’s plastic scrap imports. However, in keeping with China’s increased efforts to clean up its industrial pollution, it has implemented a new ban on the import of other countries’ plastic trash, which started on January 1, 2018.