Okay, so it's not exactly a great title for the next James Bond flick, but it does describe what happens to some of our "unrecycleable" plastics after we chuck them into the bluebox.
It recently came out in the wash that a large amount of the plastics collected by municipal recycling programs are wrapped up and sold to Chinese interests rather than being processed right here in North America. To add fuel to the controversy, it also happens that these plastics are sold to China at a loss, leaving taxpayers on the hook for the bulk of the collection and sorting costs. With all the other issues about Chinese products and standards in the news these days it would be natural to jump onto a high horse and proclaim once and for all that China is an irresponsible industrial nation. But don't get that horse out of the barn yet. The deeper you look into this story the more blurry it gets in terms of fault.
Many municiplities simply choose to landfill their mixed plastics - those that have no market for resale in North America - rather than bother to sort them at all. It turns out few markets exists where these plastics can be sold. With homegrown mixed-plastic recycling efforts having so far failed, the choices seem to be landfill it cheaply or sell it to Asia at a loss. Greenpeace condemns the export choice and advocates instead for a domestic recycling program. Politicians and businessmen say it just isn't profitable to recycle mixed plastics in today's marketplace.
It looks to me like an opportunity. Surely someone out there - and I mean North America - has the smarts or courage or plain old good morals (backed by money, of course) to champion a market for our bastard plastics. Or maybe the packagers need to be involved at the front end to ensure less of this stuff hits the curb in the first place. There are solutions in them-there hills of garbage....
It looks to me like an opportunity. Surely someone out there - and I mean North America - has the smarts or courage or plain old good morals (backed by money, of course) to champion a market for our bastard plastics. Or maybe the packagers need to be involved at the front end to ensure less of this stuff hits the curb in the first place. There are solutions in them-there hills of garbage....
It's not all bad news. The vast majority of stuff we attempt to recycle does find a profitable home. But is that enough? No, we can always do better. And wouldn't it feel good to not blame China for our problems....
Read the article for a more in-depth look at this issue:
Really insightful.
ReplyDeletethanks for the read.