Britain has been shipping up to 500,000 tonnes of plastic for recycling in China every year, but now the trade has been stopped. China has introduced the ban from this month on "foreign garbage".
The UK Recycling Association's chief executive, Simon Ellin, told the BBC he had no idea how the problem would be solved in the short term.
"It's a huge blow for us... a game-changer for our industry," he said. "We've relied on China so long for our waste… 55% of paper, 25% plus of plastics."
The UK organisation Recoup, which recycles plastics, said the imports ban would lead to stock-piling of plastic waste and a move towards incineration and landfill.
Louise Edge, from Greenpeace, told the BBC: "Incineration is the wrong answer - it's a high-carbon non-renewable form of generating electricity. It also creates toxic chemicals and heavy metals.
"If you build incinerators it creates a market for the next 20 years for single-use plastics, which is the very thing we need to be reducing right now."
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