Running Head: DIRTY BUSINESS A CRITIQUE ESSAY 1

Dirty Business A Critique Essay

Sukhpreet S. Gosal

Durham College
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Abstract

Dirty Business is a documentary the follows reporter Nick Martian as he sets out on a quest to

find out what happens to his recyclable waste after it gets picked up form his curb. Through his

journey he uncovers lies and misinformation being spread about where exactly recycling goes

and what happens to it. He discovers large troves of recyclable waste from Britain being stored at

landfills in China and Eastern Europe, all while be considered recycled by the government in

order to meet its European Union (EU) delegated environmental goals. Dirty Business reveals

the unintended consequences of the British Packing Recovery Note (PRN) system and how

China’s new National Sword policy is changing how waste is handled by wealthy counties. The

documentary is an oversimplification of what is happening when it comes to the recycling world,

but nevertheless it does the important job of brining awareness to the situation and how the

current system is failing to do its job.

Keywords: waste, recycling, Britain, PRN, National Sword

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Dirty Business, directed by Stephine Degroote, follows reporter Nick Martain on his

expedition to see what is happening to his recycling. Produced by Sky News, Dirty business

investigates the flaws in British recycling programs and how the governments recycling

incentives are in reality, creating more landfill. The documentary makes a point to show its

audience the truth about recycling in most western countries by showing flaws in the current

system and does at no point tell of alternative solutions to the current problems. It encourages the

idea that fixing the problem is as simple as brining change to a single government program, in

this case the British Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007

and its PRN system. While attempts are made of showing many of the problems in the recycling

system, the documentary illustrates a very limited view of what is happening and what can be

done to fix it.

Summary

First Point

The documentary reveals that recycled goods do not always get recycled. It states how in

fact that only about 2% of waste is recycled globally. Britain produces 22 million tons of

recyclable waste and EU regulations require that half of it be recycled by 2020. The actual rate of

recycling is lagging behind at 44% being recycled (Degroote, 2018). Of 78 million tons of plastic

packaging waste created globally, 14% is collected for recycling, 14% incinerated, 40% goes to

landfills, and 33% ends up as pollutants in the environment (Degroote, 2018).

Second Point

The majority of recycling collected in Britain and other western countries is exported for

recycling. Chain was the largest market for this, and Britain itself imported 10 million tons of

plastics a year (Degroote, 2018). Recyclable plastic is a resource just as any and it is bought and
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sold, but problems begin when businesses lie about what quality their plastic imports are truly.

Many plastics imported are mixed with other waste products and can not be recycled without

first being sorted through by hand, an expensive process. The leftover is waste that can not be

recycled and ends up in landfills or out in the environment. The National Sword policy put in by

China in July of 2017 put though restrictions of foreign waste that can be imported and that left

containers full of recyclables with nowhere to go by lie and rot. The national sword policy

halved the amount of waste that China imported.

Third Point

Government recycling initiatives like the British PRN system encourage exporting of

plastics without necessary checks in place to ensure that the material being transported is in fact

recyclable or even going to be recycled at its destination. The PRN system is allowing exporters

to undercut domestic recyclers hurting the countries capacity to recycle goods, thus leading to

more exporting. This is because when a domestic recycler recycles waste, they are only rewarded

for the amount that is truly recycled and not the leftover waste, while exporters are rewarded for

all the waste they ship, regardless if it gets recycled. The government is allowing this to take

place in order to meet its recycling goals in numbers but in fact the opposite is happening. British

government knew about this problem with the PRN system, as stated in a report they did in 2015

but the report was not made public (Degroote, 2018). The PRN system is also now opposed by

the person who helped create it, former British Environment Secretary John Gummer.

Evaluation

The documentary does good work of portraying the information in a clear and concise

format but does fall short at some points. Some of the statistics about the amount of recycling

produced and exported by Britain is not clearly explained and it also has contradictory
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information given. For example, in part two of the documentary it is stated that the UK exports

60% of plastics collected and 40% of that goes to China. But in part three it is claimed that 60%

of exports go to China, there is no clarification or explanation given to what this means in

relation to previous information presented. Another example of confusing statistics given would

in part one where the statistics about recyclable waste produced change form being about Britain

to global recyclable plastic waste plastic packaging waste statistics that could be about the

Britain or the world, one would need to do additional research to find out.

A poor job is also done to explain what exactly certain government policies are meant to

do. They do mention several policies and give brief explanations but do not expand on them in

any meaningful manner. Example would be China’s National Sword, which is meant to put

tough restrictions on imports of foreign waste. It is stated that the policy came into effect on July

of 2019, but at the end of the documentary they say that China has stopped importing at the start

of 2018. They do not clarify if this is in relation to National Sword, and extension of it or

something else entirely. Or what exactly this applies to, it could be just plastics, all recyclables or

just foreign waste in general. It is important information that is just casually thrown in without

necessary details.

Multiple government officials are also interviewed in the documentary, but no effort is

made to get any real answers for why what is happening is happening, and what will be done to

fix it. Great questions are asked of them with hard hitting proof as evidence shown to

government officials, but cookie cutter government answers are accepted and displayed during

the course of the documentary. After all that effort is put into discovering what is happening to

recyclables, the reporter just accepts at face value what is being told to him, despite himself

having discovered that lies and fraud are commonplace in the industry.
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Response

Dirty Business does a great job of showing what is happening to our recycling and how

we may not eb helping the environment as much as we think we are, but that does not mean that

the documentary is without fault. I absolutely agree with the points being made, just recycling is

not enough of people to do, if that recycling is just going to end up in a land fill for be

incinerated. Dirty Business seems like a introduction for someone looking to learn about how

recycling is handled, but it is exactly just than a starting point that skips over and simplifies a lot

of information to appeal to a larger audience by showing the industry having one major problem

that can be solved with an easy change in government policy. The hard truth of the matter being

that there are many different problems in this industry, and it is much more complex than shown.

One of the major points shown is that China’s refusal to accept foreign waste will lead to the

necessity of domestic recycling and other waste management solutions, while there is merit to

this (Schauenberg, 2019), the truth is that while exports of waste did take a dive, they are back

on their way up as other developing countries such as Malaysia and Vietnam are accepting the

trash (Dell, 2019). Despite its many flaws I find that Dirty Business is a documentary that should

be viewed by people in the developed world as it shows what is in reality happening to our

recycling against what we are being told.

Conclusion

In conclusion knowing what is happening to our waste after it has been picked up for

disposal, while not something that many of us in the developed world think about, is important.

We may believe that by sorting through our trash and separating our recyclables is helping the

planet, it I for naught if the recyclables are than not appropriately processed. The documentary

Dirty Business does a good job of explain the situation in Britain but make no mistake a similar
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situation exists in most developed countries. While putting waste out of site by exporting it to far

away countries may put it out of our minds, make no mistake it is still on the very same planet

and contributing to the very serious climate change epidemic that is plaguing our home.
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References

Degroote, S. (Director). (2018). Dirty Business [Motion Picture]. United Kingdom.

Dell, J. (2019, March 06). 157,000 Shipping Containers of U.S. Plastic Waste Exported to
Countries with Poor Waste Management in 2018. Retrieved from Plastic Pollution
Coalition: https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/blog/2019/3/6/157000-shipping-
containers-of-us-plastic-waste-exported-to-countries-with-poor-waste-management-in-
2018
O'Neill, K. (2019, June 05). As more developing countries reject plastic waste exports, wealthy
nations seek solutions at home. Retrieved from The Conversation:
https://theconversation.com/as-more-developing-countries-reject-plastic-waste-
exports-wealthy-nations-seek-solutions-at-home-117163

Schauenberg, T. (2019, April 05). After China's import ban, where to with the world's waste?
Retrieved from Deutsche Welle: https://p.dw.com/p/3GId5