Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Recycling Rethink: What to Do With Trash Now China Won’t Take It
Wall Street Journal ^ | December 19, 2019 | Saabira Chaudhuri

Posted on 12/19/2019 10:06:42 AM PST by karpov

For decades, America and much of the developed world threw their used plastic bottles, soda cans and junk mail in one bin. The trash industry then shipped much of that thousands of miles to China, the world’s biggest consumer of scrap material, to be sorted and turned into new products.

That changed last year when China banned imports of mixed paper and plastic and heavily restricted other scrap. Beijing said it wants to stimulate domestic garbage collection and end the flow of foreign trash it sees as an environmental and health hazard. Since then, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia—other popular markets for the West’s trash—have implemented their own restrictions.

The moves have caused a seismic shift in how the world deals with its waste. Long used to shipping off trash to poorer countries to sort and process, nations are now faced with the question of what recycling is worth to them. They are undertaking new investments in domestic processing, ramping up alternative strategies such as incineration and rolling out education campaigns to teach homeowners to sort trash. Others are dropping programs altogether.

Recycling is “something that’s ingrained in you, and one day it suddenly all goes away,” said Kyle O’Brien, the town manager of Broadway, Va. The town had offered curbside recycling for two decades but canceled the service last year after Beijing started turning away the world’s recyclables. The company that processed the materials, van der Linde Recycling, closed its household waste processing facility, blaming the severe drop in prices.

For years, the world’s bottles and boxes made their way to China on ships that offered deep discounts to avoid returning empty after dropping off cargo in the U.S. and other countries. Since 1992, China has imported 45% of the world’s plastic waste

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: china; recycling
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-53 next last
The recycling that makes sense economically does not need to be mandated by the government.
1 posted on 12/19/2019 10:06:42 AM PST by karpov
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: karpov

My trash is in three types:

Food waste - Compost it

Non-burnable, non food - (Metal) take to my downtown office and drop in the street trash bin (I pay Louisville income tax even though I don’t live there, so this is what I get for my tax dollars)

Everything else - burn it.


2 posted on 12/19/2019 10:09:36 AM PST by cuban leaf (The political war playing out in every country now: Globalists vs Nationalists)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: karpov

Able bodied people receiving welfare, trash that needs to be sorted, hmmmmm.


3 posted on 12/19/2019 10:15:22 AM PST by HonorInPa
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: karpov

I live in Island County Washington. We still have a site that accepts cardboard, plastics, etc. but the employees there admit that it is just put in a landfill. I asked them why pretend to recycle it? Thay said it makes people feel good.


4 posted on 12/19/2019 10:16:11 AM PST by rexthecat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cuban leaf

1) Food waste - Compost it
This necessarily gives off CO2 contributing to global warning. Therefore WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!
2) Non-burnable, non food - (Metal) take to my downtown office and drop in the street trash bin.
Melting the metal down uses electricity or fossil fuels. This also necessarily gives off CO2 contributing to global warning. Therefore WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!
3) Everything else - burn it.
On this one clearly WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!


5 posted on 12/19/2019 10:17:07 AM PST by 17th Miss Regt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: karpov

We’ve been separating garbage for 15 years. One day I spoke to the manager of the trash company about not being able to separate for a week or two.

He said, it doesn’t matter - it all gets burned anyway.


6 posted on 12/19/2019 10:17:21 AM PST by PGR88
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: karpov

Shoot trash into outer space!


7 posted on 12/19/2019 10:17:34 AM PST by youngidiot (God save the President!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rexthecat
Zack Lee. All ours goes on the same big green hobey. 😳
8 posted on 12/19/2019 10:20:05 AM PST by rktman ( #My2ndAmend! ----- Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: PGR88

Earlier this year I read more than 1 article that recycling is basically a failure and not worth the effort. Iff you have stock in companies that make various color coded trash cans, you may want to divest.


9 posted on 12/19/2019 10:22:55 AM PST by olesigh
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: karpov

We’ve had a mandatory recycling program where I live since the mid-1990’s.

Apparently none of that stuff was being recycled. It was being dumped someplace in China, and the Chinese (quite correctly) have decided they have enough of their own garbage to deal with without taking huge amounts from foreigners.

What I want to know is who was benefiting from the scam for 20+ years?


10 posted on 12/19/2019 10:25:33 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: olesigh

Sigh. And I just bought a recycling bin.


11 posted on 12/19/2019 10:25:41 AM PST by Exit148
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: PGR88

Years ago I was managing a business. We collected motor oil for recycling. Customers had to bring it in, log it, and pour it into the collection tank.

One idiot apparently did not bother to read the rules so he just dropped off a 30 gallon drum of waste oil on the property. The drum had a label indicating that it had previously contained Freon.

Our property immediately became an EPA Hazardous Waste Site. We were forbidden to move the barrel. We had to apply for a bunch of permits and find a licensed hauler who was approved for transporting hazardous waste. The barrel sat on our property for weeks while this all took place, and the final cost was many thousands of dollars.

Finally the permits were approved and the waste hauler arrived to take the drum. I asked him what they were going to do with it. Quote:

“We take this stuff up to Detroit, dump it in an incinerator and burn it!”


12 posted on 12/19/2019 10:31:24 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Exit148
Recycling another scam...

It would be better of in a landfill...if not recycled here..

13 posted on 12/19/2019 10:32:01 AM PST by Hojczyk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: karpov

The real shame are all of the things that can be fixed or repurposed that just goes into the landfill.

I learn a lot seeing the estate sales of depression-era people and how they squeezed the daylights out of everything they buy. Even repairing 45 year old vacuums and blenders up until they die.

If it can work again, then make it work again!


14 posted on 12/19/2019 10:32:07 AM PST by VanDeKoik
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 17th Miss Regt
1) Food waste - Compost it

Unless you live in an area like Pennsylvania where the black bear population is exploding. My uncle learned the hard way.


15 posted on 12/19/2019 10:32:35 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: cuban leaf

We’ve been doing this for years. We keep our trash placed in public trash cans (Walmart, gas stations, shopping malls etc) down to the size of a Walmart plastic bag and no one ever gives us a second look.

And like you, food waste goes directly to the garden to be tilled under (our way of composting) and everything else we burn.


16 posted on 12/19/2019 10:33:13 AM PST by redfreedom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Buckeye McFrog

That’s a good story.


17 posted on 12/19/2019 10:35:29 AM PST by PGR88
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Exit148

when the Common Sense Movement takes hold in 2027, you’ll be able to use it for all trash.


18 posted on 12/19/2019 10:35:59 AM PST by olesigh
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: karpov

1. Dig a Hole.

Do I really have to explain #2?


19 posted on 12/19/2019 10:36:38 AM PST by Kickass Conservative (Kill a Commie for your Mommy.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: karpov

California gov’t are backing off curb-side blue bin recycling as it has become too costly. One city (Visalia) put out a contract to collect their 30,000 blue trash bins. I hear they had few takers.


20 posted on 12/19/2019 10:38:25 AM PST by umgud
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-53 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson