5/30/2018 Your Recycling Gets Recycled, Right? Maybe, or Maybe Not - The New York Times
Ehe New York Cimes
Your Recycling Gets Recycled, Right?
Maybe, or Maybe Not
Plastics and papers from dozens of American cities and towns are being dumped in landfills
after China stopped recycling most “foreign garbage.”
By Livia Albeck-Ripka
May 29, 2018
Oregon is serious about recycling. Its residents are accustomed to dutifully separating milk
cartons, yogurt containers, cereal boxes and kombucha bottles from their trash to divert them
from the landfill. But this year, because of a far-reaching rule change in China, some of the
recyclables are ending up in the local dump anyway.
In recent months, in fact, thousands of tons of material left curbside for recycling in dozens of
American cities and towns — including several in Oregon — have gone to landfills.
In the past, the municipalities would have shipped much of their used paper, plastics and other
scrap materials to China for processing. But as part of a broad antipollution campaign, China
announced last summer that it no longer wanted to import “foreign garbage.” Since Jan. 1 it has
banned imports of various types of plastic and paper, and tightened standards for materials it
does accept.
While some waste managers already send their recyclable materials to be processed domestically,
or are shipping more to other countries, others have been unable to find a substitute for the
Chinese market. “All of a sudden, material being collected on the street doesn’t have a place to
go,” said Pete Keller, vice president of recycling and sustainability at Republic Services, one of the
largest waste managers in the country.
China’s stricter requirements also mean that loads of recycling are more likely to be considered
contaminated if they contain materials that are not recyclable. That has compounded a problem
that waste managers call wishful or aspirational recycling: people setting aside items for
recycling because they believe or hope they are recyclable, even when they aren't.
[Here’s a guide to avoiding “aspirational recycling.” First lesson: Don’t recycle greasy pizza
boxes. ]
hitps://wwwnytimes.con/2018/05/29/ctimate/recycling-landfilis-plastic-papers html 18
