
A Global Trash Glut Hurt a $25B Industry - JumpCrisscross
https://www.wsj.com/articles/we-are-swamped-how-a-global-trash-glut-hurt-a-25-billion-industry-11564343534?mod=rsswn
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cultus
This would be a good place to point out that most plastic and paper recycling
is worse in practice, in terms of emissions and chemical pollution. The only
solution is to use far less plastic. Durable products should be preferred.
Items that are disposable are much better off being wood, and deposited in a
good clay-lined landfill afterwards.

However, this requires tough choices, so it's easier to have a blue bin and
decide you've figured it out.

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olivermarks
Six Times More Plastic Waste is Burned in U.S. than is Recycled

[https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/pft/2019/4/29/six-...](https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/pft/2019/4/29/six-
times-more-plastic-waste-is-burned-in-us-than-is-recycled)

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devops_monkey
Burning waste to generate energy is _unfortunately_ the least impactful to the
environment. The best is obviously reduce, reuse.

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mymythisisthis
Can't this be a 'make work' project? Get people working.

Or, sort recycling/garbage for half a day, and get half a day of free
technical training in something like welding or auto mechanics?

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goodcanadian
The problem is not a lack of people sorting. Quite the opposite, in fact.
There is a glut of sorted recyclables and the prices people can get for it
have collapsed.

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sp332
If the recycling were getting sorted for free, more recycling stations would
be viable businesses.

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devops_monkey
Not really. The bigger problem at the moment is that the market for recycled
materials has effectively disappeared. No one is buying these commodities
right now. Chinese government owned businesses spent a lot of money buying US
paper and plastic mills then shut them down so they could bring those
industries to mainland China. Then they discovered that it wasn't as good a
business as they hoped. Now they have stopped buying our recycled materials so
prices have dropped. Some commodities prices have even gone negative, meaning
recycling facilities are paying to have materials removed from the warehouse.
So even if sorting was free, most materials are either sitting in warehouses
or simply going into the landfill. source: I work in the industry.

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Scoundreller
Even if commodity prices are negative, there’s still a price where it’s
cheaper than landfill, no?

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jeddawson
It really depends on the region since landfill rates vary wildly. In
California: most likely yes since landfilling is relatively expensive, but
again depends.

Waste haulers have always had a non-zero expense for recycling even when the
processed materials had strong values. This is because the recycling has to be
collected, transported, sorted/processed, then shipped again. Depending on the
local market, regulations, incentives/subsidies, and distances involved for
shipping it can very easily end up that a negative commodity price tips the
scales in favor of landfilling.

Also, it's worth noting that some portion of the recycling stream will end up
in a landfill regardless of the commodity price because it's contaminated (or
just not a recyclable material) which has an impact on the overall cost per
ton of recycling. Commodity prices going negative just push this to include
more of the stream since it means only the "best" materials are economically
viable for further processing and shipping. It's a balancing act that the
industry has been doing internally for a long time, but now it's becoming a
serious issue since large amounts of the recycling stream need to be
landfilled if we don't want to spend a whole lot more than we already do on
solid waste.

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olivermarks
'China, which buys most of the world’s garbage, and the U.S., which sells the
most. Last year, China dramatically cut the amount of garbage it buys'

When the trade war first shots were being fired, China stopped being the USA's
garbage disposal service. The 'buying' and 'selling' is a little disingenuous
here IMO

China's Waste Ban Is Causing A Trash Crisis In The U.S. (HBO)
[https://youtu.be/NK20t11He14](https://youtu.be/NK20t11He14)

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rad_gruchalski
“China's Waste Ban Is Causing A Trash Crisis In The U.S.” This statement is
also disingenuous. Consumption and general lack of care in the US is causing
the crisis in the US.

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zimbatm
> The reduced demand from China and continued supply from the U.S. flooded the
> world trash market and drove down the price of garbage everywhere.

This sentence doesn't make sense. If there is more demand for trash recycling,
how is it not driving the price up?

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thekid314
I think the fall in the price of waste is because there is a glut in the raw
material (recycled paper, plastic pellets etc.) that come from the garbage. So
it looses it's value because the materials it produces has lost value.

Governments don't pay for recycling when dumping is a cheaper alternative.

