Is This the End of Recycling?

Author: Alana Semuels, Source: The Atlantic

After decades of earnest public-information campaigns, Americans are finally recycling. Airports, malls, schools, and office buildings all proudly display their blue bins for paper, plastic, and glass.

But now much of that carefully sorted recycling is ending up in the trash. For decades, we were sending the bulk of our recycling to China — tons and tons of it, sent over on ships to be made into goods such as shoes and bags and new plastic products. But last year, the country restricted imports of certain recyclables, including mixed paper and most plastics.

Waste-management companies across the country are telling towns, cities, and counties that there is no longer a market for their recycling. These municipalities have two choices: pay much higher rates to get rid of recycling, or throw it all away.

This end of recycling comes at a time when the United States is creating more waste than ever. In 2015, America generated 262.4 million tons of waste, up 4.5 percent from 2010 and 60 percent from 1985. That amounts to nearly five pounds per person a day.

The costs of all this garbage are growing. When organic waste sits in a landfill, it decomposes, emitting methane — landfills are the third-largest source of methane emissions in the country.

Americans are going to have to come to terms with a new reality: all those toothpaste tubes and shopping bags and water bottles that didn't exist 50 years ago need to go somewhere, and creating this much waste has a price we haven't had to pay so far.

What can you do? Start by reducing your consumption of single-use plastics. Reusable produce bags, tote bags, and water bottles are simple switches that make a real difference. Every Manatee Bag eliminates over 50 plastic bags a year — and that adds up.