FT Rethink

The west’s new recycling challenge

At the end of 2017, China banned virtually all materials for recycling. Before that, it took about 60 per cent of the plastic waste exported by G7 countries. That dropped to less than ten per cent in 2018.  As the FT’s Leslie Hook explains, finding new ways to deal with recyclables has suddenly become an enormous challenge.

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FT Rethink

FT Channels, a partnership destination that combines impactful and enriching multimedia content to spark curiosity and encourage discovery. Each vertical brings expert insights from the Financial Times and our Partners into the most pressing issues of our time.


FT Rethink series focuses on the people, technology, strategies and systems moving us from an economy that is wasteful, idle, lopsided and dirty towards one that is circular, lean, inclusive and clean. The channel alternates between independent reporting from FT journalists and business perspectives from Lombard Odier