U.S. Recycling….and a Slow Boat to China
February 28, 2011 | Posted in: green business, recycling, resource conservation, sustainability, waste reduction | 0 Comments
In working with a variety of businesses and organizations, we often get questions – and subsequent comments – about whether a particular recyclable material is going to be sent to China. And just to clarify, the questions are not generally asked with the hope that China will be a recipient of our recyclable commodities. And oftentimes, the answer is “quite possibly,” but of course always dependent on what type of recyclable material we’re talking about.
“American-made” is a long-held ideal…..thus, it is the catalyst for many of the conversations about where our recyclables end up. And the topic has seemed to come up frequently in recent years with the recession having such a significant effect on businesses and jobs. The catch is that we are also living in a much more global marketplace; we are not on an island of isolated production and consumption. Recycling has, for the first time, has now become an integral part of the U.S. economy and therefore sees all of the impacts that affect the rest of global trade and industry. It is often forgotten that those recyclable materials that we ship to China – and other countries – comes back to us in the form of “stuff” that supports our culture of consumption. In other words, we’re buying the stuff and so the cycle continues.