Recycling Repercussions in America

Starting this month, the country's new policy will likely send more recyclable materials to the landfill. But many environmentalists also see it as a golden opportunity.

Starting this month, China will no longer buy most of the paper and plastic U.S. consumers recycle. In July, Chinese officials told the World Trade Organization that they will limit the entry of “foreign waste” by banning two dozen types of materials that often contain “dirty wastes or even hazardous wastes.”

The announcement has thrown recycling programs across the country into turmoil. With China out of the picture, American waste and recycling firms are scrambling to find new buyers for the scrap they collect from curbside bins. For many years now, China has been the largest global importer of most recyclable materials. The U.S. alone exported about two-thirds of its wastepaper and more than 40 percent of its discarded plastic to the country last year. China plans to replace the materials it imports with recycled material collected at home.

In a statement on its website, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality said the announcement, “coupled with earlier import restrictions on these materials, has severely disrupted recycling markets worldwide with major impacts in Oregon.” The Washington State Department of Ecology struck a similar note. “In the short term,” a statement on its website read, “more potentially recyclable materials are likely to go to the landfill because no market is available for them.” But both agencies urged residents to continue recycling as normal.

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