Nothing new. The rich west's environmentally friendliness is built on offshoring their pollution to other nations who are poorer and more easily corruptible.
Been saying this with plastic recycling since forever. Consider: if large swaths of landfill waste were being blown off ships into the ocean, people would consider it a Big Problem. But that happens all the time with recycling and it’s a non-issue.
Save the ocean! Don’t recycle! (unless you know your area has a local plant)
I understood the belgian plastic recycling system is actually created by plastic and packaging companies. They had a problem: governement wanted them to deal with the waste, or they would receive regulation to force them. So they turned it into an opportunity: Consumers became responsible for the waste, not the industry. In fact they sell more plastic packaging for consumers to do the recycling, and call it good for the environment, how cynical can you get. On TV, their spokespeople sell the system as working great, and reusing bottles is somehow worse for everyone. They got the numbers to prove it.
I was aware the reduce and renew had been reduced to a whisper and largely forgotten (they reduce consumption after all, recycling is the only acceptable one in are consumption driven world) but I didn't realize some one had actually tried to twist things so they could vilify them.
The local plant is a source of micro plastics. Send it to the incinerator.