this is an old post i have not seen it before but i think it's important we know.
Think those plastic items you carefully separate from the rest of your trash are being responsibly recycled? Think again. U.S. recycling companies have largely stayed away from recycling plastic and most of it has been shipped to China where it can be processed cheaper. Not anymore. This year China announced a Green Fence Policy, prohibiting much of the plastic recycling they once imported:
For many environmentally conscious Americans, there’s a deep satisfaction to chucking anything and everything plasticky into the recycling bin—from shampoo bottles to butter tubs—the types of plastics in the plastic categories #3 through #7. Little do they know that, even if their local trash collector says it recycles that waste, they might as well be chucking those plastics in the trash bin.
“[Plastics] 3-7 are absolutely going to a landfill—[China's] not taking that any more… because of Green Fence,” David Kaplan, CEO of Maine Plastics, a post-industrial recycler, tells Quartz. “This will continue until we can do it in the United States economically.”
U.S. recyclers are scrambling to come up with a solution now that China is drastically cutting back on their top import from the U.S.:
China's demand for low-cost recycled raw materials has meant waste shipments from Europe, the US, Japan and Hong Kong have arrived thick and fast, with scrap becoming the top US export to China by value ($11.3bn) in 2011.
China controls a large portion of the recycling market, importing about 70% of the world's 500m tonnes of electronic waste and 12m tonnes of plastic waste each year. Sudden Chinese policy changes therefore have a significant impact on the global recycling trade, which puts pressure on western countries to reconsider their reliance on the cost-effective practice of exporting waste, a habit that's reinforced by a lack of domestic recycling infrastructure and a lower demand for secondary raw materials.
aren't these jobs that looks like now will be on the countries who till now have outsourced to China? republicans rant about China and other countries not getting on board with climate change changes while we send our jobs that could be real recycling of plastics to China but notice we have not heard word one about plastics even the recycle commercials on TV have all but gone away. now it looks as though China has had an second thought as to what their way of disposal is affecting them or ploy to raise their price for the deed or have the seen what republicans haven't the potential of green?
China's Green Fence policy just might spur the U.S. government and recyclers into much-needed innovation:
Historically, higher labor costs and environmental safety standards made processing scrap into raw materials much more expensive in the US than in China. So the US never developed much capacity or technology to sort and process harder-to-break down plastics like #3 through #7.
Green Fence might be a chance to change that, says Mike Biddle, CEO of California-based recycling company MBA Polymers. “China’s Green Fence offers a real opportunity to the US government and recycling industry to step up its efforts on recycling and catalyze a strong domestic recycling market in the US,” Biddle said at a recent webinar on Green Fence.
The opportunity for big change (and big profits) is there. Let's hope the U.S. government and recycling companies don't throw away the opportunity to lead the way.my only worry is big business who will more than likely enter the race for US enterprises which through the years has proven to not be as honest as suggested. but when it comes to recycling instead of disposal given how many products we by now hand held devices and such generally sporting a made in China stamp sounds like a good almost never ending end game.
US buying as much as we do would seem to be a good deal for both consumers and recycler's, but than the inevitable greed bug will kick in shortcuts and inferior products will abound than we the consumer pays the price and that price will rise if they have to spend more getting materials.
look at it like this if there was enough profit in it for US businesses than they would have been doing long ago since they gave up for the fast cheaper alternative of outsourcing, doesn't make the next new phone coming look any more attractive if 3 digit rise in prices result, but who am i kidding we got a Jones for shiny objects. since this is an old post are we seeing this now with products like Iphone 6plus???
