STANDARDS

NGSS: Core Idea: ESS3.C, ETS1.B

CCSS: Writing: 2

TEKS: 6.2E, 7.2E, 8.2E, E.5F

Data Analysis

Piling Up

What happens to waste after it’s tossed into recycling bins? It might not be what you think.

ARIC CRABB/DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA/BAY AREA NEWS VIA GETTY IMAGES

AS YOU READ, THINK ABOUT whether you know where your garbage and recycling goes after you throw it away.

In households across the U.S., people set aside newspapers, cardboard, glass jars, plastic bottles, and metal cans to be recycled. You may think all that waste is destined for a local recycling plant. But for nearly three decades, much of it was actually sold and transported all the way to China to be turned into new products. That changed in 2018, when China stopped accepting most plastic and paper recycling from foreign countries. Now, the U.S. and other countries are scrambling to figure out what to do with their waste.

In households across the U.S., people set aside items to recycle. They save newspapers, cardboard, glass jars, plastic bottles, and metal cans. You may think all that waste is headed for a local recycling plant. But for nearly three decades, much of it was sold and shipped all the way to China. There, it was turned into new products. That changed in 2018. China stopped accepting most plastic and paper recycling from foreign countries. Now the U.S. and other countries have to figure out what to do with their waste.

Before China’s restrictions, it processed half of the world’s recycling. All that junk was usually mixed together and dirty. It needed to be separated and cleaned before it could be recycled. This took so much labor and time that recycling other countries’ trash became unprofitable. “It got to the point where some of it was so dirty, China had to stop the importation of the material,” says Ernie Simpson, a materials scientist at TerraCycle, a recycling company in New Jersey.

Without China to buy their trash, hundreds of U.S. cities and towns have found that recycling is simply too expensive. They’ve resorted to dumping recyclables into landfills or burning them in incinerators, explains Simpson. But there’s hope that China’s policy change could prompt the U.S. to update its recycling infrastructure. Simpson says people can keep trash out of the environment by reusing items and buying fewer things to create less waste in the first place.

Before the change, China processed half of the world’s recycling. All that junk was usually mixed together and dirty. It had to be separated and cleaned before being recycled. This took a lot of labor and time. It became expensive to recycle other countries’ trash. “It got to the point where some of it was so dirty, China had to stop the importation of the material,” says Ernie Simpson. He’s a materials scientist at TerraCycle, a recycling company in New Jersey.

Now hundreds of U.S. cities and towns have a problem. Without China to buy their trash, recycling is just too expensive. They’ve started dumping recyclables into landfills or burning them in incinerators, explains Simpson. But there’s hope. China’s policy change could cause the U.S. to update its recycling methods. Simpson says people can keep trash out of the environment by reusing items. They can also buy fewer things. That would create less waste in the first place.

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