Why Wealthy Nations Send Their Waste to Developing Countries, And What Must Be done

     Why are developed nations sending containers filled with plastic and other waste to developing nations?  Most developing nations are already drowning in their own plastic waste. Go to any supermarket or grocery store in a developing nation, and in it almost every food item and personal care item is made from some type of plastic or other oil based non biodegradable material. Snack and candy wrappers, chip bags, food packaging materials, toothpaste, shampoos, Styrofoam, yogurt and other food containers, toothbrushes, plastic bags, the list is endless.
       Walk down the isles of any one of these stores, where everything may look clean and orderly, and then realize that after a single use for most items purchased, the wrappers and packaging materials will be around for virtually forever contaminating the environment.  The non biodegradable material breaks down into smaller pieces that at some point can never be removed from the environment.
         Almost all of this material is non recyclable. And yet recycling persists as the mythical answer to mankind's enormous plastic and other oil based non biodegradable waste problem.
          If recycling works - which it does not, including because almost all plastic and other oil based materials mankind presently uses is not recyclable - then why are rich developed nations sending their waste to developing nations that are already overwhelmed with their own plastic waste?
           This is not an argument against recycling. Recycle what can be recycled, but stop the illusion that recycling is the answer to the massive plastic waste problem that is destroying lands, coasts, rivers, lakes and oceans.
            Sweden burns much of its plastic waste, which is far preferable to the open burning that takes place elsewhere. At least Sweden gets energy from its plastic waste and removes as much contaminants from the burning process as is possible with today's existing technologies. Sweden's controlled burning is also far preferable to the open dumping that takes place all over the world, in which millions upon millions of pounds of plastic enter into the oceans daily.
             The deception must end that recycling of plastic means shipping plastic waste to developing countries. Shipping plastic to developing nations ill equipped to handle their own plastic problem is disingenuous, harmful and must become criminalized conduct.
              Here is where the United Nations, a normally ineffective entity with a highly partisan agenda (ignore every brutal psychopathic bloodthirsty regime on the planet and focus only on Israel) can help. Outlaw and criminalize the shipping of waste from one country to another, unless the receiving country has been licensed to receive other country's waste because it has the infrastructure and technology to handle plastic waste, including its own. Few, if any countries will qualify, outside of Sweden.
               So for now, either have all the plastic waste go to Sweden to be burned, assuming this is something Sweden wants, or have an international agreement that all plastic waste must be disposed of in its country of origin. No more waste dumping from the developed world into the developing world.