On Jan. 1 ( 2018 ), China made good on its promise to close its borders to several types of imported waste. By the next day, panic had already taken hold in countries across Europe and North America as trash began piling up by the ton, with no one having a clue where to now dispose of it all.... The ramifications of China’s recent ban has been described with language suggestive of a natural disaster. It has sent “shockwaves” worldwide, said Greenpeace East Asia plastics campaigner Liu Hua. Arnaud Brunet, head of the Bureau of International Recycling, compared the ban to an “earthquake.”.... P.S. To strictly enforce its ban on import trash, China must mete out heavy punishments to individuals, organisations or companies that try to smuggle garbage into the country. As a matter of interest, it won't be surprising that the only export the US would gladly lift its sanctions on Iran, North Korea, Russia, Venezuela, etc would be American garbage.