China Doesn’t Want Your Damn Plastic

Since 1992 China has taken 106 million metric tons of plastic from other countries. That’s 45% of the World’s plastic. China has been taking our plastic and selling it back to us in a perpetual cycle for a long time.  Let’s say you buy product A, you use product A, you recycle product A. Instead of being recycled here in the United States, it is shipped to China for recycling.  It is then made into a new product and brought back here on a shipping container or reduced to plastic pellets called “nurdles” and sold to a company which will make it into a new product here and sold back to you. Now you go to the store and buy product A.1, the process repeats and you buy product A.2, the process repeats and you buy product A.3. This continues until this plastic can no longer be recycled and it goes into a landfill in Somewhere, USA.  This is an overly simplistic example but the point remains the same. In 2017 China passed a policy banning plastic waste import. This has caused a backup of recycling here and many municipal recycling plants are diverting recyclable materials to landfills. This results in more “virgin” plastic production which creates pollution and drains valuable fossil fuel resources. Fees for recycling are set to increase as municipal facilities scramble to keep up with an increasing workload. Through 2018 and into 2019 the ban is set to expand and will include other valuable resources such as paper. We have a huge problem that most people haven’t even heard about. I don’t understand why this isn’t news. We need to decrease the plastic we buy and use, especially single-use plastic. If you would like to read more please click here.