China on July 18 notified the World Trade Organization (WTO) that from the beginning of 2018 it is planned to ban the import of 24 different types of waste. This change in policy is called Operation National Sword. Representatives of Chinese customs officers were ordered to focus on the quality of imported waste paper and plastics. High quality standards must be met, and the customs authorities now weigh all containers for weight verification, and also use X-ray machines to check all containers entering the country. If the container is not available, it will be opened for inspection.

China will apply this ban and strict inspections, as before waste was not processed and not sorted before being sent abroad. Often hazardous wastes were mixed with solid, seriously polluting the environment.

Prior to this ban, China annually imports millions of tons of waste in the world to provide them with its processing. According to estimates of the Bureau of International Processing of China last year, the country imported 7.3 million tons of plastic waste worth $ 3.7 billion, accounting for 56% of world imports from Europe, Japan and the United States, and 27 million tons of waste paper.

Back in 2013, China conducted a similar campaign, known as Operation Green Fence. Chinese customs officers apply a more rigorous approach to incoming lots of foreign waste. In the first six months, 800,000 tons of waste were rejected, and 247 companies lost their import licenses.