The above link is a fantastic 99% Invisible podcast about the worlds current recycling situation.
For many years China had been the garbage dump for the Western world. 90% of recyclable material was bought by China and shipped in giant containers to shift the problem away from our shores. Recycling was collected, cleaned, sorted, then sent to China where it was turned into new stuff. Last year China decided to stop accepting most of the waste that was imported and so we had to find new places to send it. These new places didn’t have the infrastructure to process the waste that was being sent to them and they soon also stopped accepting waste. It’s gotten to the stage now that western recycling companies are paying third party companies to take their waste away from them. The recycling business is losing and soon we will no longer have the space to store all of our waste.
Investing in a recycling infrastructure of our own is extremely expensive so that isn’t an option for the near future. The solution is simple. We need to reduce the amount of stuff we produce and consume in the first place. Companies supplying products should be held accountable for what happens with the packaging of their products and what happens to the product after it is no longer useful. We also need products that don’t expire as quickly, they need to last longer. As consumers we need to take it upon ourselves to think of the environment when we make a purchase. That will mean making more expensive purchases but a purchase you can feel better about and one that will be more cost effective in the long term. Collaborative systems will be good for this.
Then reuse. I have mentioned this many times in this blog. Reusing used products is a fundamental shift we, as consumers, need to make by ourselves. Seeing the beauty in a used product only requires a shift in perspective.
Lastly, this documentary is the heartbreaking reality of the state of recycling in China. I am glad they are refusing our waste, for their sake.
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