Grisly find exposes China’s dirty trade in used blood bags and syringes
Discovery of mountains of used medical supplies being ‘recycled’ at a Hunan workshop reveals a web of dealers across the country, report says
More than 140 tonnes of used plastic medical supplies, including syringes and blood bags, was illegally sold off through an underground network of recyclers on the mainland, state media reported on the weekend.
The sale of the waste came to light with the jailing of a dozen people convicted on environmental pollution charges in Hunan province last week.
Police officers handling the case said they were concerned that more of the dangerous waste might have been fed back into the manufacturing chain and reprocessed into plastic products for the food, medical and building renovation industries, Outlook magazine reported.
Hunan police spent six months investigating the illegal activity, detaining dozens of suspects in a web of dealers and suppliers – including property management firms – that spread from Hunan, to Hubei, Guangdong, Hebei and Jiangsu. More suspects were still on the wanted list.
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Acting on a tip-off, officials from the Miluo Environmental Protection Bureau in Hunan discovered several men “recycling” about 50 tonnes of used medical supplies in a backyard workshop in Gupei township in April last year, the magazine published by state-run Xinhua reported.