What Happens Now That China Won't Take U.S. Recycling

Americans are finally recycling! Airports, malls, schools, and office buildings across the country have bins for plastic bottles and aluminum cans and newspapers.

Before the U.S. started recycling its own waste materials, we were sending a large amount to China to be made into mostly packaging materials to come back to the US. Historically China has been short the raw materials to make packaging, and they had all those empty ships heading back, so freight was not an issue. 

Last year, China restricted imports of a number of recyclables such as mixed paper and certain types of plastics. In the wake of these restrictions we are paying a higher price to collect and process our recycling materials, as the only other option is to throw it away.

If you are wondering why Americans have continued to consume more each passing year, there are a number of reasons. One reason behind the increasing generation of waste is that there are simply not enough incentives to buy less.

The country has grown to be more consumerist in nature and the citizens have the buying power to purchase more. Most products also have short life spans so throwing them away after they are worn out is cheap and convenient. However, there are unseen heavy costs associated with the amount of trashed tossed out.

We have not been able to sort out recycling as well as other countries. In China, the manufacturing industry is on an all-time high given the demand for goods. For the US to sell recycling within the country, can be a difficult task but varies from place to place. There are cities that are trying to drive recycling rates, this is complicated after restrictions from China came into being, and have increased the cost of these services.

Some city governments have taken it in their hands to educate their citizens and encourage them to consume less. One of these cities is San Francisco. They have been actively advocating for people to think before they purchase and avoid buying plastic bottles and other disposable goods. Of course, this is not an easy task given that the city has people who want to get their hands on the latest technology as soon as they can and are not thinking in retrospect. To deal with this challenge an ordinance has been passed that 10% of the beverages has to be sold in reusable packaging. Although the city and its surrounding areas have banned plastic bags and plastic straws, as the rest of the country has still not caught up. However now with the virus, this too is being looked at. 

The measures taken by the San Francisco government are still not enough to slow down the waste being generated. If you go to the farmer’s market, you will find that most packaging is flimsy and not fit to be used again. Most of the products sold in big box retail stores,  still have plastic packaging which ends up being thrown out. 

The consumer spending in the US accounts for 68 percent of the GDP and given the strong economy, getting people to consume less and for companies to produce more responsibly requires work. Some people feel our government will have to have stringent regulations in place in order to reduce waste and manage it.

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