29 March 2019 – Periodical Science with RubicOnline
Tons of recyclable waste is being piled high in warehouses to the point of unsafe conditions now that China has stopped recycling waste from other countries. Since it is dangerous for facilities to be holding as much waste as they are, recycling facilities are forced to throw away much of what citizens throw in the recycling bin.
In 2008, China started buying recycling from other countries that didn’t have the means to recycle waste efficiently instead of buying more expensive raw materials. This helped grow and expand China’s industries and improve their economy. In 2016, China recycled half of the world’s plastic, paper, and metal waste exports, buying $5.2 billion of waste from the U.S.
China first announced to the World Trade Organization its plan to ban the importation of 24 different categories of solid waste in 2017. This plan also included limiting the allowed waste from having only 0.5%contamination. The average rate of contamination in recycling in America is 25%. Lowering America’s contamination rate to the needed rate to recycle through China is considered an impossible task by American recycling facilities. And even if America was able to reduce the contamination, it still prohibits the recycling of many materials including fabrics, plastics, and unsorted paper.
China created the ban to reduce the pollution that had become visibly noticeable, and the use of other country’s resources isn’t necessary now that China is a wealthy and powerful country. The waste ban became effective in 2018, and it has had lasting effects on other countries, including the U.S. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, a third of the 66 million tons of materials that are recycled each year from America are exported to countries like China that couldn’t afford raw materials and needed it as a resource.U.S. facilities are still trying to figure out what to do with the excess waste now that it can’t be shipped off to the well-paying buyer, China. The recycling facilities are overflowing with waste while managers search for a new processor, possibly in the U.S. or in another country, or until it is thrown in the trash because facilities don’t have enough room to store the waste.
