China seizes 11.4 tonnes of adult diapers imported from US in crackdown on foreign waste
- Customs officials say they are substandard and considered waste products
- Beijing banned imports of rubbish last year as it tries to tackle pollution
Chinese customs officials have seized 11.4 tonnes of substandard adult diapers – deemed to be waste products – that had been illegally imported from the United States and repackaged in Thailand before they were shipped to China, according to state media.
Authorities in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province said the diapers were poorly packaged, not individually wrapped, and they did not have manufacture or expiry dates on the labels, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Friday. Some of the products were also said to be dirty or in poor condition.
The officials said the diapers were considered to be foreign solid waste, meaning they could not be imported into China after it banned shipments of waste last year.
“These diapers are a waste product from the production process of overseas diaper companies,” Wang Bo, a customs official, told the broadcaster. “They are mainly unusable or substandard products created when these companies’ machines start up, or when the raw materials are changed over.”
The officials said the seized diapers had been shipped by a Chinese importer from the US to Thailand for repackaging, then labelled as Thai products before they were sent to China.
According to the report, the manager of the Chinese import business, who was not identified, told the authorities he had imported 374 tonnes of the adult diapers previously.