Vol. 10: What Happened to Recycling edition

This week, let’s start off by talking about the state of recycling. Even with your best efforts in separating your trash (and cleaning your plastics), it might not be making any difference.

Before January 2018, recycling was set up in the U.S. in a beautiful way. Americans would buy stuff from China, which came over on ships. The ships would’ve been empty on the way back home, but enterprising waste managers realized they could fill them with plastic waste, at a very cheap rate. China would buy that waste and recycle it into more stuff to sell back to the U.S.

It was globalization at its finest.

The problem was, a lot of that plastic waste was un-recyclable and it would just be incinerated or dumped into the ocean.

Then, two years ago, China got tired of being the world’s dumping ground. They announced Operation National Sword, which would drastically reduce the amount of waste they allowed in. Previously, China was taking in 70% of America’s plastic waste, but that’s been reduced by almost 99%! . This also, in lesser degrees, applies to paper products (which include boxes), aluminum and glass.

It’s led to chaos in American recycling programs. In the past, waste management companies would pay cities for their plastic waste. Now they have to pay the waste collectors. In Philadelphia in 2012, the city would be paid $67 per ton of plastic waste. Now they have to pay $170 to have it collected.

The end result is a number of municipalities are simply giving up on recycling. In many cases, people continue separating their trash out into bins, yet it all ends up in the same place.

The topic is a complex one, and an easy starting point to learn more is either this episode of the Planet Money podcast: So, Should We Recycle? or the video a little further below.

To make sure to not end on such a depressing note, this week’s edition has color-changing shoes, an app to tell how sustainable your jeans are, an article about “How to Not Freak Out About Climate Change”, and Joaquin Phoenix in a tuxedo (you’ll see why).

Happy Reading,

Ranjan

P.S. A quick reminder: even small donations can help Australia recover from the wildfires (via Lucy Keig):

Donate to the The Red Cross (Australia)
The royal fire service of New South Wales is taking donations to buy equipment to keep fighting the fires, the majority of whom are volunteers
Wildlife Warriors as part of Australia Zoo, run by the Irwin family and are saving as many injured animals as they can

ARTICLES

Colour Changing Shoes By MIT Research Lab

Imagine a world where we had one pair of shoes that could change color to match our outfit. The folks at the MIT Research lab might be onto something.