China is already following the United Nations Basle Convention on the Control of Transboundry Movement of Hazardous Waste, which requires an export permit and import approval for disposal. The U.S. and Hong Kong have not yet ratified this treaty. What to do with the enormous tonnage of rubbish created and discarded every day is a major global problem seldom addressed openly. Dangerous, unpleasant waste tends to trickles down to the lowest, least powerful stratum of society within a national unit and to migrate to the poorest of the national units. Historically, Americans have had great difficulty organizing on economic class interest across racial and ethnic lines.
Nuclear waste is the exception because it seems impossible to agree on any disposal site.
The Department of Energy wants to store thousands of tons of plutonium contaminated clothing, lab equipment and machine parts used in making nuclear bombs. Britain has similar problems with nuclear waste. The people who get the waste are leery of accepting 300,000 cubic meters of the stuff. Trade in waste is big business. New York City, for example, collects 14,000 metric tons of waste a day.