Our recycling system is in a crisis. Last year, China stopped taking our recycling for processing, setting off a chain reaction of problems for the American recycling system. In New England and across the country, the cost of recycling for towns and cities is skyrocketing, forcing local governments to shift around their budgets, or worse, consider canceling their programs altogether.

But the current crisis has exposed fundamental problems with how we recycle – making it a chance to create a better system. It’s an opportunity to address the bigger issue: our homes and communities are constantly barraged by a flood of packaged materials, a flood that we can’t control. Today’s products and their packaging are often made from plastic and designed for disposal. The producers of those products have profited by making you and your environment pay for their polluting products.

As the true cost of our current system is exposed, we must hold paper and plastic producers responsible for the pollution they’re pumping into our communities.

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