UK WAKES UP TO REALITY OF CHINA'S WASTE BAN

Nation experiences 'short-term pain' as companies scramble to set up recycling operations for paper, plastics

On an industrial estate next to Heathrow Airport, workers sort through disposable cups and glasses of all shapes and sizes - among them coffee cups discarded in street bins by Londoners on their way to work and pint-size containers left on beer-stained stadium floors by soccer fans.

The cups are sorted by type and tightly packed into bails that will soon be turned to pulp at a reprocessing plant.