Almost all plastic recyclables in the US is shipped to Asia and Africa. It’s simply not profitable to process here.
From the article:
> Recently, however, China has made efforts to curb waste.
> For years the country had imported millions of tons of recyclable waste from overseas, but a growing recycling burden at home prompted the government to shift its policy.
>90% of river-borne ocean plastic comes from 10 rivers in Asia and Africa
Sounds like it isn't profitable there either, so why are we shipping it
China’s change in recycling policy was caused by a documentary on the workers who sift through the countless volumes of plastic waste. It’s quite sad: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6qZwo6U5YFY
Can we stop pretending that whatever bejing decrees becomes reality in the country it claims to rule over? Its a nice play-pretend facade and the socialist inspired reality below is usually quite dystopian..
We pretend to recycle and they pretend to care..
With that in mind being able to recycle plastic cheaper than creating it from oil would be an economic and environmental win.
As a small factual change I can not find any evidence for the statement that most plastic waste comes from shipped recyclables. I'd love a source for that.