Is Recycling Dead?

[Friendly Angel]

California has a CRV instead of a "deposit" on drink bottles, but none of the recycling centers actually pay by the container, they pay by the pound.  And most of them are essentially just trash facilities.  Going there to get cash redemption is not easy, fast, or enjoyable.  And the biggest operator of these places just closed all 300 of their sites.  China used to buy all this stuff but they're getting picky about the quality of recycled waste and so a lot of stuff people think they're recycling goes to landfills anyway.

What's the answer?

[2397]

Or has there actually been any meaningful recycling going on in those cases? Shipping it to whatever country has poor enough environmental standards for someone to make a profit from it, until the country decides they don't want to be the West's landfill anymore.

Maybe if you have to send your trash across the world you're doing it wrong.

[daniel1948]

Maybe if you have to send your trash across the world you're doing it wrong.

Ya think?

I gather that recycling aluminum is still profitable.

[Desert Fox]

Maybe if you have to send your trash across the world you're doing it wrong.

Ya think?

I gather that recycling aluminum is still profitable.

Most metals are still worth recycling - I recycle scrap iron as well.

[Harry Black]

What's the answer?

Not privatising things that exist for the public good.

Recycling is not a commodity, there is no reason for it to be tied to the profits of a private company.

[amysrevenge]

I heard about this on a podcast or something (I don't remember the reference, so that makes me an expert) that recycling overseas (ie. the industrial process of recycling) was juuuuuust slightly more profitable than recycling here, which in a capitalist system makes it entirely impossible to recycle stuff here.  So since we can't recycle overseas as much anymore, means no recycling.

(It's a thing that grinds my gears about unrestrained capitalism.  Externalities are effectively zero cost, so something that is profitable with low externalities compared with something that is slightly more profitable with large externalities will never happen, even though it is profitable.)

[jt512]

California has a CRV instead of a "deposit" on drink bottles, but none of the recycling centers actually pay by the container, they pay by the pound.  And most of them are essentially just trash facilities.  Going there to get cash redemption is not easy, fast, or enjoyable.  And the biggest operator of these places just closed all 300 of their sites.  China used to buy all this stuff but they're getting picky about the quality of recycled waste and so a lot of stuff people think they're recycling goes to landfills anyway.

What's the answer?

In California, if there is no recycling center within a half-mile of a supermarket, then the supermarket will be required to redeem CRV-beverage containers for cash.  The supermarkets in our neighborhood all display a sign indicating that they will do this, though I have never seen a single customer return a beverage container to a supermarket.  I don't either, but I always recycle my bottles, cans, paper, and plastics.  Our city gives each resident a recycling bin in which tp put all recyclables without sorting them.  The bin is picked up weekly.

[lonely moa]

Recycling in NZ is experiencing a bit of a comeback.  There seem to be financial opportunities.

[Alex Simmons]

Australia has experienced the same issue, much of our recycling was shipped to China. No more. How it was handled varies by local government area. My local council didn't have anything going to China, they used all domestic recycling facilities. The recycled bundles sent to China were constantly being devalued because of contamination (e.g the paper bundles would have too much plastic, or wax, or oil or other contaminants and this made much of the bundle useless for paper recycling as the extra level of processing wasn't worth it). The lower the "purity" of the substance being recycled, the less valuable it becomes.

In my state they have recently introduced the Tomra "reverse vending machines" - which accept cans and bottles (aluminium, glass and plastic). You feed the machines items one at a time, it scans it and either accepts or rejects it. You get 10 cents for each item accepted. This is working pretty well and sorts out very quickly what is and is not accepted. It provides for a low level of contaminants in the items collected making them sufficiently valuable.

You can choose to have the value of your returned items credited to any of a list of charitable organisations, or deposited directly into your PayPal account.

[CarbShark]

Australia has experienced the same issue, much of our recycling was shipped to China. No more. How it was handled varies by local government area. My local council didn't have anything going to China, they used all domestic recycling facilities. The recycled bundles sent to China were constantly being devalued because of contamination (e.g the paper bundles would have too much plastic, or wax, or oil or other contaminants and this made much of the bundle useless for paper recycling as the extra level of processing wasn't worth it). The lower the "purity" of the substance being recycled, the less valuable it becomes.

In my state they have recently introduced the Tomra "reverse vending machines" - which accept cans and bottles (aluminium, glass and plastic). You feed the machines items one at a time, it scans it and either accepts or rejects it. You get 10 cents for each item accepted. This is working pretty well and sorts out very quickly what is and is not accepted. It provides for a low level of contaminants in the items collected making them sufficiently valuable.

You can choose to have the value of your returned items credited to any of a list of charitable organisations, or deposited directly into your PayPal account.

In California we built a fairly robust recycling industry. Then it became a little more profitable (a few dollars per ton) to ship to China and the local industry starved. It's possible that it will come back.