The end of recycling?
February 23, 2019 at 8:12 am
(This post was last modified: February 23, 2019 at 8:26 am by Gawdzilla Sama.)
Quote:Materials that once held value have seen pricing collapse. Newspaper, cardboard boxes and plastichttps://www.meridianwaste.com/media/7425...er_web.pdf
bottles for instance are piling up at recycling plants, which have lead local officials across the
country to charge residents more to collect recyclables and send some of the stockpiled materials to
landfills. (4)
So, is the experiment over?
More from the above:
Where to from here
Most will agree that the industry has reached a crisis. For new markets within the U.S. to begin to tackle and absorb the recycling issue
stateside, the infrastructure needs to be identified, permitted and built which takes years. Plus, the manufacturing industry needs to
be clear with communicating the materials it’s willing to purchase and at what quality standards to help shape the recycling industry
of tomorrow. In the meantime, the viable options being explored range from drastic price increases, changing the recycling mix by
eliminating glass, paper, plastics and certain other commodities, or suspending recycling collection until more favorable markets
return. Education is important to help curb contamination trends, however, even clean bales are not guaranteed to make it to China
nor are they commanding the same return