China has a big history with plastic. Throughout its rise to economic prominence, China has manufactured and exported a huge amount of plastic products to eventually become the world’s largest plastic producer in 2013. More recently, China’s domestic consumption of plastics has skyrocketed as well. In 2019, China produced more than 80 million tonnes of plastic products. But a lack of recycling and reuse has been a persistent headache, both in China and the world at large.