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US States Banned From Exporting Trash To China Are Drowning In Plastic

Posted by Unknown on from the everyone-gets-a-3d-printer dept.

hackingbear writes "Not only we depend on Chinese labor for the imports but we also depend on them to clean up our mess. Being green is getting a lot harder for eco-friendly states in the U.S., thanks to the country's dependency on overrun Chinese recycling facilities since the start of China's Green Fence policy this year. Recycling centers in Oregon and Washington recently stopped accepting clear plastic "clamshell" containers used for berries, plastic hospital gowns and plastic bags, while California's farmers are grappling with what to do with the 50,000 to 75,000 tons of plastic they use each year. The Green Fence initiative bans bales of plastic that haven't been cleaned or thoroughly sorted. That type of recyclable material, which costs more to recycle, often it ends up in China's landfills, which have become a source of recent unrest in the country's south. For every ton of reusable plastic, China has received many more tons of random trash, some of it toxic. That has helped build 'trash mountains' so high they sometimes bury people alive. For a country facing environmental crisis after environmental crisis, it is no longer tenable to accept US waste exports."

3 of 427 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Incinerators by Joce640k · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why is the US so allergic to incinerators?

    NIMBY.

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    No sig today...
  2. come on, this IS the 21st century! by Thud457 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is /. , why isn't there some hipster maker with a kickstartr to build a arduinio-driven robot recycling bin that can sort our plastics for us?!!! It should use a dirigible to go door-to-door soliciting refuse and dispensing bitcoins, which, at the customer's option can be donated to the EFF.

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    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  3. Re:Just dig a really deep hole by Gription · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My question is: In a time where everyone is screaming, "Green!!!", why is every little object packaged in a large plastic case 10 times the size of the little object?
    Not only is it an obvious waste, it is incredibly irritating to have to break out tools to extract a purchase.

    Funny experience was watching a person at an airport wrestle with a sealed package with a bluetooth headset inside. (Of course no one has anything sharp because the only good human is a helpless one) They ended up cutting their hand on the packaging before they got it open.

    !!! Wait!!! Doesn't that mean that plastic packaging should be banned from airports as it can obviously cut someone?