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Have you heard that we can no longer recycle many kinds of plastic in the US that we’ve gotten used to being able to recycle?<\/span><\/span><\/strong>\nWe were so disappointed when we heard the news that China has stopped importing post consumer plastic waste.<\/strong><\/span> We try hard as a Green store to find creative ways to reduce the amount of waste that we generate and to find ways to re use everything we can, but for some materials, mostly soft clear plastics like plastic bags, we relied heavily on recycling. This recent import ban crates an enormous challenge for us and for all consumers, as the amount we are forced to send to landfill will increase quite a bit.<\/p>\n
The Chinese recycling industry had been a $5 billion annual business, and scrap and waste was the sixth largest U.S. export to China. When shipping containers come into the U.S. from China they are laden with products, but those empty containers must return to China. Due to the trade deficit, this resulted in heavily discounted shipping rates that allowed huge volumes of mixed paper and plastics to be delivered inexpensively to China for recycling. Last year China imported 7.3 million tons of waste plastics, primarily from the U.S. and Japan. Non-curbside plastic has almost no other place to go if it can’t go to China (except our landfills).<\/p>\n Economic Impact for Recycling Industry and their U.S. workers:<\/strong><\/span> So Why Did China stop taking plastics for recycling?<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n This is actually the primary hurdle that all recyclers face.<\/span> Materials such as plastic must be clean to be able to be melted down properly and make it a reusable material, so food or chemical waste can ruin that<\/strong>. This contamination can result in entire loads being landfilled, and ruining the chance of the recyclable materials actually getting recycled.<\/strong> <\/span>So, recycling\u00a0right<\/em>\u00a0is more important than recycling\u00a0more<\/em><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n Paying attention to what is allowed in the bins protects the integrity of the materials that can be recycled, so being a good recycler means being careful about what you put in those bins.![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.greendogpetsupply.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/AdobeStock_52486639-300x200.jpeg\")
\nThe Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) quickly condemned the ban, stating it would have a \u201cdevastating impact\u201d on recycling on a global scale and in the U.S. Robin Wiener, ISRI\u2019s president says, \u201cMore than 155,000 direct jobs are supported by the U.S. industry\u2019s export activities, earning an average wage of almost $76,000 and contributing more than $3 billion to federal, state, and local taxes. A ban on imports of scrap commodities into China would be catastrophic to the recycling industry.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nPart of the problem is that plastic is made from petroleum, and now that oil prices are so low, it\u2019s often cheaper to make new plastic than to go through the trouble and expense of recycling old plastic.
\nHowever the bigger reason seems to be that these recycled materials have been arriving with serious contamination issues.<\/span>
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\nThe WTO filing references recent Chinese government efforts to clamp down on the quality of recovered material imports into the country. Through those actions, \u201cwe found that large amounts of dirty wastes or even hazardous wastes are mixed in the solid waste that can be used as raw materials,<\/strong>\u201d<\/span> the environmental ministry wrote. \u201cThis polluted China\u2019s environment seriously,\u201d the filing continues. \u201cTo protect China\u2019s environmental interests and people\u2019s health, we urgently adjust the imported solid wastes list, and forbid the import of solid wastes that are highly polluted.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>When food wastes and other garbage is mixed in with the materials that can be recycled, they can ruin the recyclability of that material. Some mechanical sorting is a big part of the process, but non-recyclables can really mess up the machinery. The sorting machinery is designed to sort only the list of items allowed in the collection bins. As screens sort paper and cardboard from the chunkier plastics, flat lids can get mixed in with the flat paper, which is why you can recycle tubs but not their lids. Plastic bags can clog sorting machinery, as can electrical cords and metal wire. Sorting these things by hand is very labor intensive and therefore expensive.<\/span>
\n<\/strong>Check out this behind the scenes footage<\/a> of Portland’s recycling centers<\/p>\n
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\n People assume that \u201cplastic is plastic\u201d and so they put items like clamshells into the curbside bin, just hoping that the recycling facility will just have<\/em> to recycle it with the rest. However, the things that are allowed in bins are allowed because there is a market for that specific type<\/em> of plastic<\/strong>. Shampoo<\/span><\/span> bottles and tubs are made from a certain kind of plastic that manufacturers are seeking to make specific products. Clamshells are a different kind of plastic for which there is no current market, and as stated above, the machinery used to sort mixed recyclables isn\u2019t designed for the shapes and type of plastic clamshells are made of. Different plastics also have different melting points, such as water bottles and their plastic caps. Removing and discarding the caps is critical to the success of plastic bottle recycling.<\/p>\n
\nWe all wish we could recycle more, but wishful recycling only causes more problems – this ban that China has enacted should be a big wake up call as to the repercussions of contaminating recyclable materials.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.greendogpetsupply.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-06-at-5.46.15-AM-1024x282.png\")