The city’s system for dealing with its paper waste has been failing since China in July imposed a ban on imports of 24 types of rubbish, as part of a campaign against “foreign garbage” and environmental pollution, including unsorted scrap paper.

Each day in Hong Kong, 2,500 tons of fresh paper waste is piling up with no place to go, according to Jacky Lau, director of Hong Kong’s main recycling business association.

“We started our business 50 years ago and we have never experienced such a crisis,” Lau said, saying the industry was losing HK$2.7 million ($346,000) daily.

Traditional suppliers of waste paper to China include Europe, the U.S., Hong Kong, Japan and Southeast Asia, according to industry associations.

While China indicates it will impose an outright ban on mixed waste paper, a final decision isn’t expected until November. For now, authorities have tightened requirements on waste paper to markedly cut back on allowed levels of contaminants, making it difficult for many recyclers to meet.

PAPER PRICE SURGE

As a result of the impasse, the manager of a major paper mill in southern China told Reuters the price of finished paper had doubled to 6,000 yuan ($902) per ton from 3,000 yuan as supplies of the raw material shrink.

That is hurting everyone from e-commerce sites to exporters.

Alibaba’s upcoming ”Singles’ Day online shopping festival on November 11, which posted more than 120 billion yuan ($18.1 billion) in sales last year, is heavily reliant on such packaging.

The U.K.’s Environmental Services Association said the restrictions would ripple beyond China.

“Online retailers like Amazon still need cardboard boxes and most comes from China,” said Jakob Rindegren, the recycling policy adviser of the U.K. association.

One corrugated box retailer on the online shopping site Taobao reached by Reuters, said the price of cardboard boxes had nearly doubled since the end of August to 8.8 yuan ($1.33) each.

Thirty-one billion packages were delivered in China in 2016, according to another online retailer JD.com in a statement. The company said it was seeking to markedly cut back on cardboard usage on environmental grounds.

Alibaba didn’t immediately respond with a comment.

The bans, which also include other forms of waste material – plastic, tires and glass – have also had a wider impact on waste shipments to China.

Maersk Line, the world’s largest shipper of containers, said it has already seen a drop in waste cargo into China.

“While it’s too early to understand the full impact, we do see an impact on volumes of waste imports into China. However we expect some measure of rebound as exporters adapt to the new regulations,” said a Maersk spokeswoman in Hong Kong.

Maersk declined to give further details on its China waste shipments.

In a customer notice on Sept. 26 German container shipper Hapag-Lloyd, the world’s fifth largest container line, said it would stop accepting cargoes of scrap plastic and waste paper from Europe, the U.S. and Asia that are due to arrive at Chinese ports after Dec. 31. Hapag-Lloyd did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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