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US States Banned From Exporting Trash To China Are Drowning In Plastic
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."
And put it all there.
There. I fixed it.
I heard India is having an economic crisis right now...
I'm doing my part to keep from burying innocent folks in China!!
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
As someone living in one of those states, they just need to be more thoroughly sorted, which you can barely make out of the poorly written and slanted article.
They'll have to dead head back to China with empty ships!
This story reminds me of the documentary "ShipBreakers" showing the plight of the Indian workers breaking down ships and dealing with the toxic and unsafe conditions. At one point a ship arrives that had been on a toxic list for a long time, had had it's name changed multiple times and was finally going to get scrapped in India because no other place on Earth would take it.
CBS 60 minutes did a story on it too but it was in Bangladesh and three years later than the documentary..
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Guys, lots of other countries use incinerators for non-recyclable stuff. You get rid of it, and get electricity and heat as a bonus. Modern incinerators are so clean, they rarely even emit visible steam.
Why is the US so allergic to incinerators?
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
"For every ton of reusable plastic, China has received many more tons of random trash, some of it toxic."
That's okay, the toxic stuff was all stuff they made and sold to us anyways.
"slashdot", I don't see any N, P, or R in that.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Yeah, John Galt would of built train tracks out of that toxic waste if it weren't for those corrupt unions and their stupid cancer lawsuits.
After reading it over several times, it still isn't making sense in my head: "US States Banned From Exporting Trash To China Are Drowning In Plastic" "United States States Banned from Exporting Trash To China Are Drowning In Plastic" Huh?
YOU'RE WINNER !
Another lame blog
I think this is the biological way, really. The way life works with the second law of thermodynamics is by increasing the entropy somewhere else (producing waste) so that the entropy goes down locally. That's not going to change.
Didn't you read the summary? In this particular case the capitalist country was shipping it to a poorer country, and they were taking the initiative and finding a use for it. Now the poorer country doesn't want it anymore and the capitalist country still has no idea what to do with it. Perhaps when you said 'would' you meant 'should'?
Much gets landfilled, other stuff is sorted poorly to where it is not easily recyclable. In my city we do not have single stream, but what we can put in the recycle bin is limited to type 1 &2 plastic, three colors of glass, and basic paper/carboard. The rest, I don't know where it goes, to thellandfill or single stream style sorting. Personally I sort it into a seperate bin and there is a local recycling center sponsored by the county that I take it to when it gits too big. Unfortunately, there is talk of shutting that free center down. Ergo, more crap in the landfill or for china.
The best thing to do is reduse what you can. I reuse nearly everything possible, but it still leaves alot.
Silence is a state of mime.
"it is no longer tenable to accept US waste exports."
It's no longer tenable to live the way Americans do.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
No one forced the Chinese to buy the trash in the first place.
Yes, that's what was happening - the Chinese were willfully BUYING it, trying to make money by recycling it.
So get over your childish "America is teh EVUL" and grow the fuck up.
Oregon and Washington are so green they won't accept recyclable plastic because it's actually too hard to recycle?
Long signatures suck.
That has helped build 'trash mountains' so high they sometimes bury people alive
Great, now I can't get the scene from Idiocracy out of my head that involves the garbage avalanche.
Man blir trött av att gå och göra ingenting.
Filabot craves plastic!
A video explaining plastic to oil conversion. I noticed in the video that all the plastics were perfectly clean. Recycle bins are a lot dirtier. How much water would have to be used in this process to clean the plastics? Can the poisonous gases generated be burned off safely? Interesting tech, anyway.
The answer is pretty obvious. Load up all the trash onto a rocket and launch it into space. Problems solved forever.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Pretty much. The article hints at the free market answer to this problem: building more recycling centers, or doing the sorting here. But I'm sure we'll find "green" legislation in CA and other problem states that bars us from doing this; just like we can't build nuclear power plants because of NIMBY and greenies, or wind farms because they'll ruin the sight lines of the ruling elite families.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Not a rocket, but maybe a rail gun.
Rockets run $10,000 per pound-- with a goal of hundreds of dollars per pound by 2025.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Absurd, but really, really cool.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Time to face the music and deal with the garbage produced, instead of making it somebody else's problem.
Privacy is terrorism.
So, if you dig a really deep hole in China, do they say "You're going to dig all the way to the US."
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
The problem is that they expect the other 95% to pony up the money for the same services they feel are worthwhile. It's easy to ask for a recycling fee of $50/mo to cover manual sorting, cleaning, and processing of the stream when you make 6 figures. The backlash comes from the non-green who have then money but don't give a shit and the every-day folks for whom $50/mo requires a significant change to their budget.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
The problem with all those greenies.... throw their hands up get in the private jets that burn more feul in onme day then a family of four...
Do you have any evidence that people who are environmentally conscious are likely to own private jets? Anecdotes about one person is not evidence. Your dislike of people who say things you find inconvenient is painfully obvious.
Regarding the point of this article, your country produces an awful lot of unnecessary waste - easily the most per capita. But anyone suggesting that people produce less will be smeared as a communist greenwash faggot.(All those hilarious jokes about NPR canvas totes and "Portlandia made real")
At the moment, you find that it is better to export trash to another country across the ocean than to attempt to change your population's behaviour. Looks like you won't be doing that much longer.
It's actually quite simple.
-Prevent -Reduce -Recycle -Burn
The problem with all those greenies. They are willing to be green about everything until it becomes their turn to sacrifice then they throw their hands up get in the private jets that burn more feul in onme day then a family of four does for 10 years and say "Oh well."
Ya. Who cares what TFA says when you can just rant on "greenies" who own private jets???? I know I keep thinking I need to quit flying all my milk bottles to Asia -- one bottle per trip -- and just put it in the bin, but I'm just too entitled.
I suppose we should be glad you were even marginally on topic, you could have gone off on how the gold standard would fix everything.
I am not a crackpot.
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.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
John Galt would have used the phrase "would have" instead of "would of".
Not in a few hundred thousand years when the aliens attack because they just got a shitload of our crap dumped on them.
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
Since we have mandated that everyone recycle and most people do not pay for their trash pickup, we have externalized the cost of disposing of trash. If people had to pay for the disposal of their trash AND there was a financial incentive to reward them for separating out the stuff that it is economically feasible to recycle, this would work much better. I remember as a child, my older brothers would collect various recyclables and take them to the recycling center for spending money. I did it for a little bit, but before I really got a system like my brothers had going the government mandated recycling and the recycling center stopped offering money for recyclables.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
You obviously didn't see the Futurama covering why this is not a solution.
It's nice to know that there is something that the fictional John Galt would have gotten right.
So where do you live that you produce no garbage?
More Twoson than Cupertino
Plastic is cheap, light, and sanitary. Going back to the old ways is going to mean some sacrifices. And people really hate making those (especially the "higher cost" bit). Not to mention that there would be a huge political push-back from the petrochemical industry (and they're an INSANELY powerful lobby).
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
John Galt is a fictional character who is ironically flawed and may very well have spoken improperly once or twice had he been a real person rather than an allegory for anti-collectivism. He would have though of himself as perfect though, so you get a pass on your pedantry.
Unless of course you are referring to John Galt the scottish novelist and philosopher, which as you quite correctly point, would have employed proper english at all times.
---Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A START
Goats are not that dumb - people are.
God damnit, I used WHICH INSTEAD OF WHOM, I have failed :(
---Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A START
It's just a bunch of polymeric hydrocarbons... bury it in the ground until you know what to do with it.
I used to be scared of plastics, but after looking at the chemistry the only thing I worry about is plastic in the wrong place(i.e. - around a seabird or in the gyres). Sure, the polymerizing catalysts can sometimes be scary, and some plasticizers like BPA can have minor effects, but generally plastic is OK in my book.
Hell, once I understood what plastic was it became really cool. It's like they found a way to turn crap into useful products. Hydrogen and carbon...
http://www.masturbateforpeace.com/
put R&D into incineration techniques
I'm all in favor of additional R&D, but enough has already been done to overcome most of the objections above. You'll find it being used on an industrial scale in, amongst other places, the Netherlands: http://www.triplepundit.com/2010/06/a-tour-of-amsterdam%E2%80%99s-waste-to-energy-plant/
... at least that what the story sounds like.
But what abou----
FOREVER!
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
"Don't put your trash in my backyard, my backyard, my backyard.
Don't put your trash in my backyard, my backyard's full!"
More to the point, if throwing stuff away starts getting expensive, maybe that will change the economics around so that people will do less of it and stop designing stuff to be thrown away. Or if we're talking about recycling systems, how about *gasp* building recycling plants here in the US?
I am officially gone from
The ideal to strive for is to not make any container that will survive much longer than the product in it.
Basically it's called Externality Pricing, a key component of Real Capitalism, as opposed to pollution-subsidizing Mercantilism.
Pollution has a cost.
We already make - and use on our giant campus - compostable biodegradeable organic clamshells and food containers. We do the same for "plastic" bags.
We even make bendable bioorganic photovoltaic cells that can wrap around buildings, cars, etc.
Adapt. The time for complaining is over.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
This should be mandatory reading to pass high school: http://perc.org/articles/eight-great-myths-recycling-no-28
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
Seriously, USA was not just the start of recycling, but owned it. Now, because of the cheap labor of china, combined with cheap labor of illegals, we have allowed ourselves to lose out. It is time to restart home-grown recycling, but then add new demand for it. This is easier to do than it looks.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
1. Find poverty stricken country
2. Bribe officials
3. Send plastic and while you are at it any other kind of waste, including Pu
4. Profit
Didn't think the "????" was needed.
It's been done with Africa already.
Who pays for the rocket fuel?
That stuff isn't cheap when you're escaping Earth's gravity well.
It wasn't funny ether. I hope the metamods punish the moderator that did that.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
They probably already pirated it anyway.
Joe and the volcano seemed like a good idea, what is stopping them from trying this...run up the side of the volcano, dump the stuff in, and run back down for the next load, & repeat!, Eventually, you will be able to close off the volcano completely, no?
John Galt may be imaginary, but I believe John Frum will return!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Given the state of education and general ignorance I would expect people to mass protest that idea due to the impact it would have on the moon's ecology.
Maybe we could burn the plastic we cannot recycle in coal-fired power plants. We produce 32 million tons of plastic waste a year, but burn one billion tons of coal. If the coal feed had 3% plastic added to it the entire waste stream would be consumed while producing some electricity, and slightly reducing the CO2-to-energy output ratio.
http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/plastics.htm http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/report/coal.cfm
Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
I don't recall having ever seen any sort of video or tv presentation or read an article or seen anything that clearly explains why its important to CLEAN your plastic recyclables. Now of course you can't leave food in it; thats common sense. But suppose I get done eating a rotisserie chicken in a plastic bag that has leftover chicken-juice clinging to the inside of the bag, I wanna know why I gotta go to the trouble of cleaning all that stuff out of there because its a bother and common sense tells me that its just gonna be burned off and vaporized in a melting process somewhere alone the line. And I can't think that the leftover remains of burnt chicken juice is going to make the entire recycling plant fall apart. So please explain WHY you're rejecting my somewhat-dirty plastic please.
Semi-humorously, since WA state banned plastic bags, the stores have used that as an excuse to start charging for paper bags. Which are completely recyle-able. As though they decided to punish the voters for doing the right thing.
"You must try to forget all you have learned. You must begin to dream." -- Sherwood Anderson
Good god, stop recycling because currently we suck at it. Just bury the stuff in a hole and let robots unpack it and sort it in 100 or 200 years.
You fools are like people in 1800 worrying about what to do with all the horse shit.
Seriously. No, seriously.
No, seriouysly. I even spelled it wrong for you.
Still there fuming? Good. Read this: No, seriously.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I think it worked perfectly, we just need to make sure there is a slob like me around in a thousand years to teach people how to make trash again.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Oh, my. Did it put you young whippersnappers in your place?
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Which lends credence to the idea that they don't.
What happened to "Reuse"
Wait, are you the SOB that made the grocery bags with holes in the bottom of every one i got last trip to grocery store?!? :/
I felt like someone wanted me to BUY plastic bags to put the kitty litter in
Next time they ask "paper or plastic" i guess i have to inspect the choices closer. Paper is not good for wet litter but it would at least make it out of the kitchen..
Nah, real American way will be shoot it up to orbit, then deorbit and use it as kinetic bombardment on random-war-in-3rd-world-country. Just like what DoE do with all those useless U238(depleted uranium round). Who care about dark-skinned savage, right?
Didn't the plastic originate from China in the first place, oh the irony! I think the US govt. should tell the Chinese govt. if they don't accept our recycled trash, we won't accept their plastic products.
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Spend the extra 10 cents and use materials for packaging that don’t cause this problem (like biodegradable materials). The manufacturer needs to step up to the plate and only offer these matrials just as the consumer must step up to the plate and only buy the same.
The "poorer" country isn't anymore due to the other country committing economic suicide, and they are both firmly capitalist, just one believes in savings and the other was hoping for infinite credit.
Think of all the optimization and inventions we'll do by making so many rockets! It's a win-win situation!
Quite right, I forgot Reuse!
I think I'd probably grind up and flush my food waste, if that was the system.
The US has 1.2 sq miles per person. At 3 cf of trash per week it will take one million years to get to eyeball level.
If you live in a high rise or city suburb you really can't appreciate how desolate most of the US is. There are parts of the West where we could pile all our trash for the next one hundred years and hardly anyone would be able to see the pile much less have to move.