A lot of thar plastic the Chinese put in the ocean supposedly comes from the US to be “recycled.” I woildn’t call sending our trash to the third world, “doing more than anyone else.” Once we can no longer export this stuff, we’re going to have to figure out how to deal with it on our own shores, for better or worse (hopefully better).
JFTR, Red China is a second world country, having been part of the communist bloc for seven decades.
They are still a “developing country” according to current UN sophistry (which replaced “first/second/third world” with “developed/developing” countries), a category they now share with most of the former third world. They have of course abused that “developing” status to the hilt.
First of all, exactly how much "trash" is the US sending China? Any figures? Secondly, it takes two to tango - China has traditionally been a huge importer of off-grade and second-hand steel, copper, paper and plastic to be recycled to feed its own economy and offer very cheap raw materials which the hundreds of millions of poor Chinese peasants. When the Chinese government decides this is no longer needed and wants cut the trade off, they will do exactly that. You don't ever have to worry about the Chinese Communist Party and Government being taken-advantage of.
I have a friend who buys used Canadian truck tires and ships them to SE Asia and Latin America. Canada has very strict inspection requirements for its trucks, which leave some significant tread on the tires. Truckers in places like Burma or El Salvador will use those very inexpensive tires for another 10-20,000 miles. Then they will re-tread them. Is that trash?