I don't believe China was "recycling" our trash. I think on their return trip, the Chinese buyers dumped their load in the ocean and Taa Daaa! the" Great Pacific Garbage Patch" is born!
I think China finally got tired of burning our crap, due to their air pollution problems. Now we need to burn it ourselves...just as we did decades ago.
There’s a landfill up the road, and they have a electric power plant Generating Station that burns recyclables and I think it has a pretty good output because it’s always busy & it’s also a super-heated incinerator meaning that it burns so hot there is very little smoke at all. I think it’s pushing 1200 degrees, maybe more.
Progress! Next step: burn in back yard.