CO2 impacts of transporting recovered paper & plastic bottles to China

In 2007, 4.7 million tonnes of recovered paper and 0.5 million tonnes of recovered plastics were exported for recycling overseas . The principal destination for these exports was China. But are the benefits of recycling are outweighed by the emissions associated with transporting the material to China? This report for WRAP quantifies the carbon dioxide emissions associated with transporting recovered paper and plastic bottles from the UK to China.