


































Communication, Society and Media 
ISSN 2576-5388 (Print) ISSN 2576-5396 (Online) 

Vol. 8, No. 2, 2025 

www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm 

31 

 

Original Paper 

How Improper Recycling of Used Products Impact the 

Environment in Global South 

Wenxuan Xu
1* 

1 
China Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group Real Estate Development Co., Ltd., Hefei, China 

* 
Wenxuan Xu, China Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group Real Estate Development Co., Ltd., Hefei, 

China 

 

Received: July 5, 2025          Accepted: July 15, 2025         Online Published: July 31, 2025 

doi:10.22158/csm.v8n2p31                       URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/csm.v8n2p31 

 

Abstract 

Recycling is beneficial for society as it can reduce the consumption of nonrenewable materials and help 

preserve the environment. However, some countries of the Global South seem to be encountering 

improper recycling, which has damaged the environment. The article studies how the improper 

recycling of used products impacts the environment in Ghana, India, and other developing countries. 

Keywords 

improper recycling, environment, global south, climate change 

 

Recycling has been a popular topic and movement these years. More people and more organizations 

choose to recycle their products. Proper recycling can decrease energy consumption and natural sources 

and reduce pollution to the environment. Therefore, many countries’ governments set some policies to 

encourage companies to recycle and publish some laws to ask individuals to recycle in their daily lives. 

For example, German policymakers asked producers to take responsibility for their packaging wastes. 

Germany has the highest recycling rate globally, about 56.1% (Parker, 2020). However, recycling also 

takes some burden on humans and the environment. Many developing and underdeveloped countries do 

not have enough funds and advanced technologies to recycle appropriately, so they usually recycle in 

the wrong ways. Improper recycling can release pollution into the environment and not benefit the 

world. Because all countries in Global South are developing and even underdeveloped counties, the 

inappropriate recycling are more and always causes many environmental problems in Global South. 

The south in Global South is not a geographical notion, and it does not mean the countries located in 

South Hemisphere. Global South is more likely a political and economic concept. Global south 

primarily refers to the countries which are developing and underdeveloped, which is an alternative way 



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to define “Third World” (World Population Review, 2022). World Population Review (2022) stated that 

“These countries are those who tend to have unstable democracy, are in the process of industrializing, 

and have historically frequently faced colonization by Global North countries (especially by European 

countries)”. According to Global South Countries 2022 in World Population Review, many 

economy-well countries are still in Global South: China, Qatar, and the UAE. 

Many people and many countries in the Global South like to burn the discarded products in public, 

bury the wastes in the landfill and use the wrong machines to recycle materials. These recycling 

methods are very harmful to the environment and the health of humans. Because of the less economic 

and social development, workers there are often not educated well, and companies usually do have 

strict regulations on recycling. If workers use metal recycling machines to recycle plastics, it must 

decrease the efficiency of the devices and consume more energy (Vogel, 2015). Many fuels, such as oil 

and natural gas, are unrenewable. So, humans should not recycle inefficiently. The improper use of 

machines also can cause damage to the equipment (Vogel, 2015). Repairing machines cost a lot of 

money and need variable energy. Non-standard operations also can put workers in danger because the 

power of devices sometimes can make people die. Burning the discarded products and burying the used 

products in landfills can contaminate the soil and water. Water is an important source to sustain the life 

of humans and keep the sustainability of nature. Soil is also an essential source for humans to grow 

foods and fruits. The polluted air can cause people to have lung diseases. Therefore, improper recycling 

can have many negative results in the Global South and worldwide. 

There are many improper methods to recycle discarded products in different Global Southern countries. 

India has to recycle many plastic wastes from the world every year. Agbogbloshie in Ghana is a 

significant destination for electric waste. Because of the massive population in China, there are many 

used textile products in China. The environmental conditions in these countries are not good. China, 

Ghana, and India ranked in the second half of 180 countries in the 2020 Environmental Performance 

Index. China got the best score in these three countries, only at 120 out of 180 countries. India and 

Ghana were both in 168th place, and the EPI scores of both countries were 27.6. Denmark got the 

highest EPI score: 82.5 (EPI, 2020). Therefore, there is a significant difference between the well 

environmental and badly environmental countries. Improper recycling is a big reason making these 

countries experience poor ecological conditions. 

India is a South Asian country with a large population, and India is also an essential country in the 

Global South. The high technology and economy have positive development these years. However, the 

pollutions and living conditions in India are still severe. India needs to recycle many plastic products 

every year. Unlike in Germany, the recycling method of plastic products in India is improper and dirty. 

Germany is a large recycling country in the Global North, and the technique for Germen to recycle 

plastic products is better and cleaner. There is a low-energy PET plastic recycling process in northern 



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Germany. Veolia, an environment company, can give plastic bottles a second life, which is likely 

“cradle to cradle” (Veolia, 2022). Veolia (2022) stated that “One billion bottles a year are recycled for 

further food use”. Plastic recycling in Germany releases less pollution into the world, and it makes 

fewer impacts on the environment. The reuse of plastic bottles also can save the raw materials from 

nature. However, about 79 percent of plastic waste in India gets into the land, water, and ocean, and 12 

percent of the plastic waste gets incinerated (Manorama, n.d.). These recycling methods are harmful to 

the environment. 

The large population is a critical reason India cannot recycle well. The education and energy resources 

are limited, so not every Indian can get an equal opportunity to learn. They lack the knowledge of 

recycling wastes properly, especially plastic wastes. Most Indian do not know what the results of 

burning and burying the wastes are. Kaur (2014) stated, “India was an agrarian nation and still major 

part of our economy is based on agriculture”. Therefore, India has insufficient techniques and funds to 

develop and use the high technology for recycling plastic wastes. Incinerating and burying plastic 

wastes are the easiest and cheapest ways for Indians to recycle. The workers do not need to be educated, 

and the company does not need to buy many devices. However, burning plastic waste in public is a 

significant source of air pollution (Verma, Vinoda, Papireddy, & Gowda, 2016). The burning process 

can release many toxic substances into the environment, such as Dioxins, Furans, and Mercury, and 

these substances are also harmful to the vegetation and humans (Verma, Vinoda, Papireddy, & Gowda, 

2016). Verma, Vinoda Papireddy, and Gowda (2016) reported that “burning of plastic wastes increases 

the risk of heart disease, aggravates respiratory ailments such as asthma and emphysema and cause 

rashes, nausea or headaches, and damages the nervous system”. Burying the plastic wastes pollutes the 

soil and ocean, influencing the quality of food and water for humans. Overall, there are many negative 

influences on Indians to burn and bury the plastic wastes in public. 

The Indian government has noticed the importance and impact of improper recycling. In 2016 and 2018, 

their government published the Plastic Waste Management Rules. In 2021, they announced an 

amendment about single-use plastics, which recommended some proper ways to recycle plastic 

products (Manorama, n.d.). However, laws are not always the best way to solve the problems, 

especially regarding recycling. The government needs to solve the issues from the bottom. 

Implemented education to Indian people, and making more people know the importance of proper 

recycling plastics is more efficient. 

Agbogbloshie is a city in Ghana, and many media introduced this city as an “e-waste dump”. Between 

1960 and 1965, the GDP of Ghana increased by 50 percent because of the national industrialization. 

Industrialization makes more people leave from rural places to Accra, the large city in Ghana 

(Lewblank, 2016). The new migrants lived in the slums in Accra, and they started to receive the used 

e-wastes from the developed countries, such as the USA, Japan, and Europe. Gradually, Agbogbloshie 



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in Accra became the major destination for electric devices (Lewblank, 2016). Lewblank (2016) 

reported that “In the years following the first e-waste, the Korle Lagoon, located inside Agbogbloshie, 

became one of the most polluted bodies of water on the planet, with levels of toxins 100 times the 

acceptable amount”. The vast number of e-wastes leads the media to name this place “e-waste dump”. 

The only way for residents in Agbogbloshie to recycle electronic wastes is to burn them. They put the 

wastes like a mountain in public and burn the rubbish with fire, and then the children can get into the 

dumps to collect the metals. Many metals form used e-wastes are valuable and reusable. The electric 

companies can buy the metals from these residents to produce new products and use metals in other 

ways to make money. However, these children are constantly exposed to these toxic substances and air 

for six dollars per day (Lewblank, 2016). Yeung (2019) stated that “Burns, back problems, and infected 

wounds are common ailments among these workers, as well as respiratory problems, chronic nausea, 

and debilitating headaches—brought on by the hazardous working environment and toxic air pollution”. 

The health and living conditions in Agbogbloshie are poor and awful, and people can even see acidic 

gusts of smoke there. The air pollution from Agbogbloshie also spread to other places in Ghana, which 

can even cause a global health crisis (Yeung, 2019). 

With the development of technologies, more people are using electronic devices. Most people choose to 

throw the electronic wastes directly, and the ships will take the wastes to Agbogbloshie. There are 

many poverty issues in Ghana, especially for children. 1.2 million households in Ghana cannot supply 

enough food to children, and cholera also makes many people to experience the sickness (Hamby, 

2018). Corruption is a major problem for Ghana’s government, and it can hinder foreigners from 

investing in Ghana. Most incomes of Ghana are from the sale of cocoa, and there is no other profitable 

way for Ghana to make money (BMZ, n.d.). Therefore, many adults and children must burn the 

e-wastes in Agbogbloshie, and this job can help them have food for a living. 

The Ghanaian government published some rules to regulate the e-waste in Ghana, which are available 

from 2016 to 2023. The Ghanian government issued a law to help the Ghanian Ministry of 

Environment to enhance collaboration with other government agencies to regulate the activities of 

private companies and non-governmental organizations. The government also gave some support for 

the private companies to recycle appropriately. Exchange and advisory services noticed the problems in 

Agbogbloshie, and they were trying to transit to a more regulated recycling site for Agbogbloshie 

(Spitzbart, n.d.). However, 95 percent of recycling activities in Ghana are informal. Therefore, it is 

difficult for the government to regulate well. The Ghanian needs to improve the living conditions and 

make more Ghanian get education. These are the fundamental and efficient methods, like India and 

many other countries in Global South. Corruption is a severe element hinder the development of the 

country and the Ghanian government needs to solve. The Ghanian government not only needs to 

regulate the problems of e-waste recycling, but also the issues of corruption. 



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China is a large developing country located in East Asia, and it is also an influential entity in Global 

South and even the world. Because of the Opening and Revolution in the 1980s, China turned from an 

agricultural country to an industrial nation. The pollution and industrial wastes are much more than 

before. Although the techniques of recycling wastes are more advanced than in many developing 

countries, the issue of pollution is still severe in some Chinese regions. Because of the large population, 

many electronic wastes, plastic wastes, and textile wastes are recycled each year in China. Textile waste 

is the most apparent problem in the Chinese recycling industry. Bloomberg (2020) reported that “In a 

country that makes more than 5 billion T-shirts a year, there is a stigma to wearing old or second-hand 

clothes and millions of tons of garments are discarded every day”. Chinese people have many 

unwanted and used clothes, and no one wants to sell and buy these clothes. Therefore, most Chinese 

choose to throw these used clothes to the dump directly, and the rubbish station burns and buries these 

used clothes after collections. However, throwing is not the best solution for textile waste recycling. 

Most Chinese people like to buy fast fashion products, such as Uniqlo and Zara. The style and price of 

these products are cheap and popular, and it reinforces the issues of Chinese textile waste. There is only 

about 1percent of used clothes recycled every year (Bloomberg, 2020). 

Although most clothes are made of clean materials, such as cotton and fibers, these materials do not 

have toxic substances to the environment and humans, but clothes can release carbon while producing 

and recycling. Bloomberg (2020) reported that “The fashion industry accounts for around 10% of 

global carbon emissions, more than is produced by all flights and maritime shipping combined, 

according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation”. Carbon emission is an essential reason for global 

warming these years. Variable carbon emission increases the impact of the greenhouse effect. The 

incinerating of textile wastes in China can also boost the greenhouse effect. Rising temperatures and 

climate change are obvious in China these years, and they increase the health risk of the Chinese. The 

heatwave exposures for Chinese increased by about 4.51 days compared with the average number from 

1986 to 2005, and the heatwave-related deaths increased by 92 percent in China (Cai, Zhang, Ai, Bai, 

& Bao, 2021). Climate change also can increase the disasters from nature. In Sichuan province, people 

are threatened by flood, drought, and wildfire exposure in Liaoning and Jilin (Cai, Zhang, Ai, Bai & 

Bao, 2021). The impacts of recycling in China are not obvious as in India and Ghana, but most people 

concerned for the effects in the future. 

Recycling textile products like clothes cannot make many profits for Chinese companies. The used 

clothes are also hard to prove health and safety, so organizations and individuals are unwilling to use 

the second-hand clothes (Bloomberg, 2020). Wearing strangers’ second-hand garments is also a shame 

to most Chinse, so the market of use clothes is tiny in China. Chinese people are more likely to buy old 

electronic devices and books. The recycling and garbage sorting regulations are not forcible in China, 

so it may increase the costs of recycling textile wastes for companies. There are many garbage sorting 



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bins in Chinese cities, but most people just throw the clothes with other trash, such as kitchen and 

domestic waste. The lack of knowledge on garbage sorting and recycling probably is also why the 

Chinese government recycles textile products hard. 

The Chinese government has already noticed the problems of textile waste and its negative influences. 

China is a member of the Paris Climate Agreement, and the goal of the Chinese government is always 

significant to decrease the greenhouse effect. China has already reduced coal consumption, and China 

achieved nine of the 15 quantitative targets in 2015 climate commitments (Stalley, 2021). The Chinese 

government has published some more serious rules to regulate recycling. In Shanghai, the citizens are 

asked to use garbage sorting bins correctly. The police can give the tickets to people who do not use 

these bins correctly. Some Chinese companies and organizations also have plans to collect the used and 

old clothes for people living in poorer countries. The companies and organizations export some 

high-quality used clothes to some African countries, and the export of used clothing rose from 1 

percent in 2010 to 6.4 percent in 2015 (Bloomberg, 2020). Because the education system is mature now, 

more people know the importance of recycling and donate their old clothes to companies and 

organizations. Students can study the impacts of pollution and the benefits of recycling correctly in 

school. The recycling bin of old clothes has become more widespread in each Chinese community. 

With the development of the economy, many countries in Global South choose to avoid importing 

waste from developed counties. China likes to import some wastes from the USA and recycle these 

wastes to satisfy the demands of the industry before. However, China banned the import of plastic 

waste from other countries in 2017, forcing many developed countries to find new places to export 

waste (Wen, Xie, Chen, & Dinga, 2021). The living conditions and environments are not good enough 

in China these years, and importing waste is essential for the harmful environment. China already has 

many wastes from local people, and most waste ends up in landfills. The volume of solid waste 

imported from other countries was 45 million tons before the ban, said the Chinese government 

minister (Rapoza, 2020). These solid wastes are burdening the Chinese government and citizens, and 

they can contaminate the water and soil, and the landfill’s capacity has its maximum. Therefore, the 

Chinese government needed to ban waste imported from other countries. The economic development 

helped Chinse no longer need to import waste for money. The main goal of the Chinese government is 

to keep good living conditions and a proper economy increasing, so importing waste is not a good 

choice for China now. 

Malaysia is a developing country located in Southeast Asia, and most Malaysian origins are from China. 

Malaysia has a similar culture and norms to China, and it became a popular destination for waste after 

the Chinese government banned waste import. However, the Malaysian government is trying to avoid 

importing some unofficial wastes from developed countries. Malaysia stated that they had already sent 

267 containers of illegal plastic waste back to their original countries since 2019 (Reuters, 2019). 



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China’s ban is a direct reason for countries like Malaysia to stop importing waste from developed 

countries (Lee, 2019). The economy of Malaysia also has a good score these years, and the Malaysian 

government focuses on protecting the local environment more. The government wants to have 

sustainable development, and the living condition should not be destroyed in Malaysia (Lee, 2019). 

However, Malaysia permitted some waste imports from the USA on March 14, 2021. The Malaysian 

environment ministry stated that these wastes were clean and licensed. Therefore, these wastes do not 

need to be shipped back. Chen, Nath, Chong, Foo, Gibbins, and Lechner (2021) stated that “In Asia, the 

percentage of plastic in solid wastes generated in Malaysia is second only to the Philippines. 

Significantly, by 2018, Malaysia produces more than 0.94 million tons of mismanaged plastic wastes 

per year”. The environmental issues are severe, and the growth of the population is fast these years in 

Malaysia, so the Malaysian government needs to stop waste import thoroughly. 

Not only China and Malaysia tried to ban the wastes imported from the countries in Global North. 

Rapoza (2020) indicated that “Reports last month of returned British recyclables from Sri Lanka, 

Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Turkey—to name a few—show that these countries want out 

of the garbaged goods trade”. All these countries are from Global South, and the emerging market 

nations are trying to send the trash back to the original countries. The government of Sri Lanka 

companies that some containers from the UK are unrecyclable and exceed the maximum amounts, so 

they returned 21 containers in October (Rapoza, 2020). In Vietnam, the government stopped issuing 

more licenses to import waste and regulated the illegal waste shipments. The debris caused many 

Vietnamese ports to be crowded, and about 6000 containers of waste need to be handled (Reuters, 

2018). Like China, Vietnam imported wastes to make raw materials for the paper, plastic, and steel 

industries. However, the Vietnamese government also realized the waste only benefited the waste 

processors but not the environment and every Vietnamese (Reuters, 2018). Because the costs of 

factories increased in China, more companies chose to move the factories to Vietnam. The factories not 

only take the money to Vietnam but also take the pollution to this developing country. One foreign steel 

plant contaminated Vietnamese coastal water, and many Vietnamese citizens were angry. More 

developing countries in Global South realized the importance of the environment, so they were trying 

to increase the efficiency of recycling old products and stop importing wastes from developed 

countries. 

The improper recycling of wastes can negatively influence the country, especially in the environmental 

industry. Burning the wastes can release toxic substances into the air and impact the health of humans, 

and most workers must suffer lung disease because of exposure to toxic air. Burying the wastes in 

landfills can contaminate the soil and water. Soils and water are important sources for humans to have 

healthy and clean food. If the soils and water are contaminated thoroughly, the food will be dirty. These 

recycling methods also increase the consumption of unrenewable metals because some metals from 



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e-wastes can be used many times. The countries in Global South need to suffer these problems more 

than the developed countries in Global North. Many developing countries must import waste to make 

raw materials and earn money from the waste. Although some economy-well countries, such as China 

and Malaysia, have tried to increase the efficiency of recycling products and have banned the wastes 

imported from developed countries. The efforts of minor countries are strenuous to improve the 

environment and living conditions for the whole Global Southern world. Educated workers and 

efficient governments are essential factors to keeping sustainable and making the environment suitable. 

In a word, improper recycling of waste is a global issue, and the countries from both Global North and 

Global South need to take responsibility for waste. 

 

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