Talking Trash: Unfortunate Truths About Recycling

http://www.counterpunch.org/2019/04/16/talking-trash-unfortunate-truths-about-recycling/
Date Written:  2019-04-16
Publisher:  Counterpunch
Year Published:  2019
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX23685

A deep dive into the mechanics of recycling and why it isn't a panacea for our environmental problems.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

The prime reason China gave for rejecting American trash was that its valuable plastics were laced with non-recyclable contaminants. This was true, and I'll talk about why, but Trump's tariffs and geopolitical rivalry probably made it happen when it did. Regardless, even had China not shut that door, we would still be in a tizzy over how to make our vast waste stream go away. Americans simply buy and toss too much stuff and their expectations that it will all be magically disposed of properly simply don't jibe with reality....

Thanks mainly to electronic documents and drastic declines in newspaper readership, there's a lot less recyclable paper being tossed out and less demand for it. Also, the supply of corrugated cardboard (think home delivery detritus) keeps growing. Cardboard can be transformed into more of the same and building materials. For paper, less consumption means a smaller or stagnant market for recycled paper fiber. As waste paper becomes less valuable, fewer recycling haulers want to handle it, and those that do may charge municipalities more for the privilege.

Increasingly replaced by plastic ones, fewer glass bottles and jars are being discarded. Their affixed labels make them unsuitable for remanufacturing, so most get get pulverized for mixing into concrete and asphalt, but that product isn't very profitable. Too, the plastic containers superseding them keep getting flimsier. Many are made of lower-grade resin that isn't economical to recycle into other products.