A ban on imports of recycled plastics, and most grades of paper has been started by the Taiwanese Government.
As reported by REB Market Intelligence in August, Taiwan announced a ban as a direct result of a similar ban by the Chinese Government.
Shipping lines have begun notifying customers that they will no longer take all recycled plastics as these are no longer allowed for import into Taiwan. This is with immediate effect.
But the lines are also informing paper exporters that only the commodity codes 470710 and 470720 will be allowed from now. These commodity codes effectively refer to OCC and paper pulp only.
This means mixed paper, but also sorted office waste and news & pams are no longer permitted for export to Taiwan. It appears that Taiwan has taken a more restrictive approach to paper imports than China, with only mixed paper imports banned by the Chinese currently.
Originally, Taiwan had announced a 60-day consultation period, but this was then reduced to 14 days allowing the ban to come into immediate effect from this week.
