Source: Deutsche Nachrichten
Europe is now discussing tariffs. It wants to protect itself from becoming too dependent on China for raw materials, parts, and finished products. The numbers from 2025 are clear: the EU exported goods worth 200 billion euros to China but imported goods worth over 559 billion euros. This leaves a trade gap of about 360 billion euros. Europe is no longer just buying raw materials; it is losing its own industrial production.
Higher Wages and Faster Action in China
China is no longer a cheap-labor country. Wages in industrial areas have risen to 10–12 USD per hour. China’s real advantage today is not low costs. It is the high speed and consistency in getting things done.
A Leader in Green Energy
This speed is highly visible in the energy sector. China is expanding renewable energy faster than any other country. This growth covers rising electricity needs and it is starting to replace fossil fuels like coal and oil. China creates this green shift through mass production, not by asking citizens to consume less.
Modern Waste-to-Energy Instead of Landfills
There is also a huge difference in waste management: Since 2010, European political decisions have slowed down waste-to-energy plants. Whereas China grew its number of waste incineration plants from a few dozen to more than 1,100 within 20 years. China burns over 1.1 million tonnes (1 tonne = 1,000kg) of waste daily to create energy. This is more than half of the global capacity. A success story: Household waste sent to simple landfills dropped from over 85% to around 5%. China uses waste as a steady source of energy and raw materials.
Critics say this rapid growth hurt recycling. In the short term, this is true. Strategically, however, China followed a clear logic: you cannot have a stable recycling system without a working basic waste infrastructure. Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (the DACH region) had the same experience in the past.
China built the treatment plants first and is improving recycling now. China prioritized the immediate climate benefit: stopping methane gas pollution from landfills and replacing fossil energy. This was seen as more important than short-term recycling targets.
Europe’s Focus on Distant Goals
Europe often loses itself in big future visions. Politicians focus on ideal “zero-waste” goals. At the same time, they fail to strictly enforce existing rules, such as making producers pay for their waste.
The irony is that Europe has the best technology. Most of the key inventions for a circular economy actually come from Europe.
The Recycling Paradox
This creates a major contradiction: Europe still exports around 1.5 million tonnes of plastic waste per year for recycling. This does not happen because of cheap labor abroad. It happens because many foreign countries lack the modern plants and standards to manage waste sustainably. A large part of Europe’s official “recycling rate” is actually achieved outside of Europe.
At the same time, the European recycling industry is struggling with plant closures: Factories are underused or closing down. Europe has already lost up to one million tonnes of recycling capacity, because of low demand at home, rising imports, and continued plastic waste exports.
A new EU regulation strictly banned these exports on May 21, 2026. Yet, even with tougher rules, Europe loses valuable raw materials every year and buys them back later at a high price. Furthermore, some regions inside Europe still lack the proper facilities to handle residual waste.
The problem is not a lack of knowledge or technology. The problem is political: recycling rates achieved abroad are valued more than real recycled raw materials at home.
Is Europe’s Raw Material Problem Self-Inflicted?
As long as recoverable waste ends up in landfills, discussions about independence from Chinese raw materials are incomplete. Every tonne of waste in a landfill is an environmental problem, a lost raw material and a loss for the economy. This increases the exact dependence that Europe wants to fight.
If Europe were to manage its goods and the resulting waste materials in a sustainable manner, the daily trade deficit of one billion euros would serve as a significant source of the raw materials we currently import from China. We simply have to handle our waste properly.
Dipl.-Ing.(TU) Werner P. Bauer, wasteculture.com