UK to overhaul waste following ban by China

The UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, known as Defra, has said it is committed to overhauling the country's waste recycling system after a public spending watchdog said the government has not done enough to respond to China's waste import ban.

In a new report on the packaging recycling industry, the National Audit Office, also called the NAO, said that United Kingdom waste export practices are unsustainable, and as a result thousands of metric tons of British waste could end up in landfills.

The UK used to send around 40 percent of its plastic waste exports to China, before environmental concerns caused China to implement a ban on several types of solid waste imports in January this year.