When China announced, in a聽July 18 filing聽with聽World Trade Organization (WTO), that it will stop importing a number of foreign recycled materials (some types of glass, metal, plastic, paper and textiles), the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc. (ISRI) called the move聽potentially 鈥渃atastrophic,鈥� with 鈥渄evastating impact鈥� on the American recycling industry.
It won鈥檛 just be a blip. One-third of all the scrap recycled in the United States (including $1.9 billion in scrap paper and $495 million in scrap plastics) is prepared for shipment to the export market. China is the recycling industry鈥檚 largest customer, according to the ISRI statement. The ISRI also points to over 155,000 U.S. jobs supported directly by this export activity, many of which could be threatened by China鈥檚 action, expected to be implemented in the last three months of 2017
Why the Change from China?
China鈥檚 government is aware of the high human and economic toll of pollution in their country. The world鈥檚 largest nation is now, in fact, eager to take up the clean-energy leadership role that the U.S. has recently dropped. No more are pictures of choking brown smog rolling into Beijing taken lightly: China has begun to fight back for a cleaner environment.
But it鈥檚 not the scrap materials themselves to which China objects. China has long been remanufacturing scrap into everyday objects that we import, buy, and use. This new initiative is part of a Chinese anti-pollution campaign called聽鈥淣ational Sword 2017,鈥� with the objective of keeping聽out the contamination that comes in along with recycled scrap from around the world. The statement filed by China with the WTO spells out the new order鈥檚 鈥渙bjective and rationale鈥�:
. . . [W]e found that large amounts of dirty wastes or even hazardous wastes are mixed in the solid waste that can be used as raw materials. This polluted China鈥檚 environment seriously. To protect China鈥檚 environmental interests and people鈥檚 health, we urgently adjust the imported solid wastes list, and forbid the import of solid wastes that are highly polluted. [Objectives:] Protection of human health or safety; Protection of animal or plant life or health; Protection of the environment.
How the Chinese Scrap-Ban Could Affect You
Officials at the聽Rockland County Solid Waste Management Authority (RCSWMA) were immediately concerned about this new Chinese initiative and the ISRI鈥檚 strong reaction to it. In Earth Matters鈥櫬爒isit to the MRF聽in 2015, Executive Director Anna Roppolo emphasized that receiving, sorting and bundling the county鈥檚 recycling was not their biggest challenge. Rather, the fluctuating prices of commodities (like petroleum), along with shifting demand, made the search for reliable markets for recycled material their biggest headache.
For more insight into local fallout from the Chinese scrap ban, Roppolo and her staff reached out to聽Casella Recycling LLC, which for the last two years has been managing the recycling operation at the county鈥檚 Hillburn聽Materials Recovery Faciility (MRF, or 鈥渢he murf鈥� as it is referred to by the staff). A spokesman for Casella replied with a more measured and encouraging view of the situation, stating that the clean condition and high quality of the county鈥檚 mixed paper recyclables made them easily marketable in Europe and Indonesia, and that the PET plastic in question already goes to domestic markets.
But Casella emphasized that there鈥檚 much yet to be clarified and made specific in this new Chinese initiative, especially with regard to the rigid plastics category (like laundry detergent bottles, five-gallon plastic buckets, broken recycling bins and garbage cans). The whole world鈥攁nd a significant slice of its economy鈥攚aits to learn more.
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