Chinese police bust plant recycling medical waste for use in plastic toys and tableware
Illegal operators salvage plastics from used hospital items which they sell around the world
Three men have being prosecuted in eastern China for recycling medical waste that can end up being made into toys and tableware for sale.
Police identified one of the suspects during a crackdown on an illegal medical waste dump in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, in August, Modern Express reported.
The suspect told police that he had been recycling medical waste – including used hypodermic needles, intravenous drip bags, bottles and tubes – from several hospitals in Nanjing which he had bought for between 800 (HK$895) yuan to 1,200 yuan a month since 2012.
He would then hire a local workshop to sort out and pack the waste, which was sold to customers in other areas including Suqian and neighbouring Zhejiang province, the report said.
Police tracked down a second suspect, surnamed Zhang, in Suqian in September.
Zhang confessed to police that he had been buying medical waste from Nanjing for between 2,000 yuan to 2,500 yuan per tonne since 2014.
He said he would resell the waste to processing plants, where it would turned into tiny plastic pellets called nurdles before being sold online to plastic factories around the world, the report said.
Police said that as drip bags and tubes were often made of polypropylene and polyethylene – two main materials for plastic products – some of the nurdles were reprocessed into plastic toys and tableware.
The case is still under investigation. Chinese law stipulates that used medical materials must be disposed of under strict procedures. Violators can be jailed for up to seven years.
