America struggles with Plastic Recycling
- Apr 8, 2019
- 1 min read
Since China's ban of plastic imports, America has been struggling with what to do with plastic recycling. China was the main importer on plastic recyclables, but due to the high contamination rate, they made the difficult decision to stop taking in other countries' plastic recycling. In 2016, the United States sent 700,000 tons of plastic to China. So where is this plastic recycling going now? Currently, it is being dispersed to Southeast Asian countries. Some of them are starting to follow China’s footsteps like India is no longer accepting imported plastic and Malaysia and Thailand are becoming so overwhelmed with imported plastic they had to cut back.
This has affected many recycling business in America even here in Jackson. Recycling contamination is a big issue globally and for us locally. Recycling contamination can cause issues during the recycling process, and that's why it's important to clean your recyclables. It's also important to understand what types of plastic your recycling hauler accepts and doesn't accept.
As we live in a world that is struggling with what to do with plastics- from oceans to recycling bins, maybe it’s time we look at our lives. How often do you use plastic and throw it away? How often do you recycling it? Maybe we should start creating a different behavior, like cutting back on plastic use. There are many reusable alternatives to plastic it just starts with one simple step.
Swap out yoru plastic with these:
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