Earlier this year, the American recycling community was stunned by a knockout punch from the Far East as new rulings from China turned a once profitable relationship upside down. In January 2018, Beijing stated that it was banning intake of most paper and plastic waste in accordance with a new environmental policy designed to free China from being the world’s “dumping ground.” The ban extends to other materials as well, and American recyclers are now scrambling to find a way to dispose of tons of material that normally would be enroute to Asia.

The issue of what to do with this waste is immediate, but out of this crisis might opportunity bloom? China has long turned U.S. trash into treasure, sending waste plastics back to the States in the form of toys, home goods, consumer electronics such as computer cases and much more. Pundits joke that Americans send scrap metal to Asia and it comes back as cars, but there is some truth there. The question is why should Americans let other nations reinvent waste materials into viable goods? Isn’t part of the solution to the recycling issue simply dependent on our own ingenuity and drive?

Continue reading article by Crystal Ward Kent in Waste Advantage