How America’s Recycling System Broke
In a world of limited resources, recycling makes all the difference in stretching out what we have. Recycling is a crucial system to all societies because it allows populations to divert, repurpose, and reuse significant amounts of waste. In the U.S., our recycling system is far from perfect, but it still functions reliably through both domestic processing and international exporting of recyclables. However, the U.S. recently encountered a monumental problem with the latter when China imposed stricter criteria for recyclables they would purchase from other nations. China’s general reduction in recyclable imports was just one part of their greater initiatives towards sustainability. Collaterally, now more than ever, the U.S. needs an efficient solution to its recycling problem.
China-America port interactions
China has a long history with recycling, even prior significantly reducing plastic imports in 2017. As a side effect of globalisation, the Chinese and American economies have become increasingly intertwined. China is famously known as the top manufacturer of consumer goods for most of the world.Thousands of shipping containers full of consumer goods manufactured in China filled west coast ports. It would be extremely inefficient for the shipping containers to only carry cargo on the first half of the trip. The problem was that the US did not have many valuable goods to offer in return.
One man’s trash is another man’s profit
Americans excel at producing one thing, and that was waste. As a country that manufactures goods for the world, abundant recyclable goods are extremely valuable and affordable in China. Americans turning recyclable waste — of little value to them — for a profit, while also exporting it was a no-brainer for them and Chinese entrepreneurs alike. Neither party could turn down the opportunity.
Martin Bourque from Berkeley, California’s Ecology Center said that many Chinese brokers were “going around the globe buying up every scrap of plastic they could find and paying top dollar for it.” He concluded that it would make a lot of sense to export waste through the port in an empty ship that was going back anyway. The first female billionaire, Zhang Yin, actually obtained her wealth by taking advantage of this business opportunity and formed the paper recycling company, Nine Dragons. Nine Dragons has since expanded to producing over 13 million tonnes of paper products globally. Another thing that sets Nine Dragons apart from other paper producers is that its primary source of raw materials is recycled paper instead of forest products.
Before China came along, most recycled goods ended up in landfills. China had the capacity, incentive, and cheap labor to sort and process large amounts of plastic waste. By 2016, China imported about 7 million tons of waste from all around the world, 700,000 of which was from America.
China begins waste restriction
This American-Chinese economic exchange was not without conflict. The Chinese government began to worry that the amount of contaminated trash being imported into the country would be more expensive and difficult to recycle. In some cases, importing and processing recyclable goods was no longer profitable. Some waste that could not be recycled was illegally dumped into China by international entities, causing land and water pollution.
There was only so much waste China could import while becoming a developed nation itself. Thus, China announced “Operation Green Fence” in 2013, an initiative to enforce the quality of plastic and waste imports. China took a further step in 2017 and implemented its “Operation National Sword.” This action plan cracked down on the smuggling of waste into the country as a response to the illegal activity in recent years. These two measures had already made importing recyclables much more difficult, but “Operation Blue Sky” effectively made it impossible for other countries to export and get rid of their recyclable waste to China. The new goal set by the government intended to end waste imports by 2020.
In 2018, China had imported 1 percent of the quantity they imported in 2016. This is a big problem for America considering the amount of waste it generates. Some places like Eugene, Oregon and Fort Edward, New York even stopped collection of recyclable waste that used to be exported to China.
Alternative solutions to the waste problem
Unsurprisingly, the U.S. has already begun to look to alternative ways of getting rid of recyclable waste and moving forward with reworking the recycling process. Many American localities have turned to Southeast Asia as a new location to send their recyclable waste. In turn, many of the recyclable waste was diverted to countries like Thailand and Malaysia. However, both of these countries began to cut back on imports as well in 2018.
Alternative locations to export waste to proved to only be a temporary fix. The amount of waste developed countries generate is simply too overwhelming for most other countries. With a huge player like China out of the picture, it has caused many American officials to panic. Unless we find new locations to send our trash to or figure out a solution to packaging consumer goods in more eco-friendly ways, we will continue to be dealing with this problem.
Currently, one of the only accessible alternatives to alleviate this problem is burning our plastic trash. For example, in Chester City, Pennsylvania, about 200 tons of recyclables are sent to the incinerators every day since China imposed its bans on importing recyclable waste. However, this is not a sustainable option. It raises additional concerns of air pollution as burning waste can release toxins into the air. Studies have shown that waste incineration plants emit harmful chemicals, like mercury and lead, in concentrations that are higher than those emitted by coal power plants. Burning trash can generate some energy but it also generates carbon emissions.
On the other hand, there have been some organizations that are conscious of the adverse health effects of incinerating waste and have collected plastic waste hoping to send it elsewhere to be repurposed and recycled. For example, Keep Illinois Beautiful collected 400,000 tons of plastic waste but it has been sitting in the back of the organization’s facility waiting for a new home. It may be more beneficial to have some top-down policies and institutions to provide guidance in alleviating this problem.
How we can learn from other countries
Of all the developed countries in the world, Germany holds the highest recycling rate ranking at 67%. Germany is able to have such a high recycling rate because it has strict policies, institutions, and social norms to enforce proper recycling practices. Its Green Dot program is especially innovative because it requires companies and manufacturers to pay for a Green Dot that varies in price depending on how much packaging the product has. It is comparable to the way postage stamps work in the US. This way, producers are held economically accountable for the amount of packaging they use and discourages unnecessary packaging materials.
Additionally, Germany also has specific, color-coded bins to help consumers sort their recyclables. Yellow bins are for packaging waste, plastics, and metals. Blue bins are used for paper and cardboard, brown bins are used for compostable waste, and grey bins are for any other trash. These bins and sorting methods work, however, because citizens care about the environment so they are motivated to properly sort their trash. As if these measures are not enough, improper recycling can also result in hefty fines that could amount to about 2,800 US dollars and scoldings from building management authorities.
Although Germany is recognized by the world as the best recycling nation, recent studies have shown that the recycled goods don’t actually end up where Germans think they do. According to the Heinrich Boll Foundation, only 15.6% of post-consumer plastic waste gets recycled into new products. Additionally, Germany had been recording such high rates of recycling because similarly to other wealthy nations like the U.S., Germany counts items as recycled if they have been exported for that purpose. With China out of this picture, Germany faces the same problem as the U.S. with what to do with most of its recycled waste after it's been sorted.
Potential solutions to consider
Nonetheless, Americans could still learn a lot from the successful parts of Germany’s recycling system. A fundamental tip to solving a problem is stopping it at its source. If a person's sink caused her house to start flooding, the first thing she should do is turn off the sink. Likewise, Americans have to focus on the root of the problem. Governments should consider holding companies accountable for the waste they distribute into the economy with a tax system like the Green Dot program. Consumers must also only consume only that which is logically necessary. If we were able to efficiently implement these solutions, there would be much less waste to export thus making China’s absent role in recycling much less impactful.
Investing in the future
Even if these solutions were properly implemented somehow, the overwhelming amount of recyclable waste still produced will still be too much for the workforce in America. Thus, it may also be a good idea for American governments and entrepreneurs to consider investing in innovative technology that manages the recycling system.
Regarding the sorting of recyclables, AMP Robotics has been working on robots that work on sorting materials at high speeds through advanced computer vision and computer learning. Since this process may be repetitive and meticulous for humans, this technology would be a great investment because robots will facilitate this process instead and they can sort the recyclables at a higher speed and accuracy rate.
The difficulty in recycling most plastics is another hurdle in the processing part of the recycling process. IBM has a technological solution for this that recycles mixed, contaminated plastics into material that can be recycled. For example, the technology could transform a polyester blend T-shirt into pure cotton and pure virgin-quality polyester. However, without the desire of manufacturers to buy these processed materials, this investment will be much less convincing. Luckily, many producers have already committed to purchasing more recycled materials. The only problem that most of these companies came across in trying to commit to these promises was the lack of recycled materials in the market.
China’s decision to refuse recyclable waste imports caused a lot of problems for developed nations around the globe. However, it may have also been a good wake-up call for people around the world. Americans are now forced to accept that there is no longer an “away” for their trash to go. Regardless of how effectively the U.S. is able to handle its recycling crisis, hopefully it will convince people to seriously consider whether they would accept the permanent consequences of their consumption of single-use materials.
Thanks for reading the Footprint blog! Keep in the loop on our latest blogs by signing up for our mailing list - and as a bonus, every sign-up will get free discounts on sustainable goods and services from our network. Or, if you want to start taking action immediately, download the Footprint App!
Interested in being part of our collaborative sustainability network? Check out ways we can work together on our website, and contact us today!
