Today was the monthly Benton County EIAC (Environmental Issues Advisory Committee) meeting, and one of our guests was Julie Jackson, from Republic Services. They're the folks who come by and pick up your trash and recycling.
Now, as some of you may already know, historically, China would buy a great deal of our recyclables. For years, they would accept recyclables that had a contamination rate as high as 2%. This made things easy for us, and allowed many Americans to grow, if not lazy, at least complacent in their recycling habits.
But, as some of you may already also know, China recently changed their rules. They now will accept no recyclables with a contamination rate higher than 0.5%. That's zero-point-five. As in, a great deal less contaminated. As in, a low level of contamination that few, if any, American municipalities can currently hope to even come close to.
Which is to say, China is no longer a ready and dependable market for American recyclables.
Uh oh.
This is a fluid and evolving situation, so nothing hard, fast and permanent is locked in yet. (On one hand, I like to think it's a great impetus for this country to finally create and manage some internal markets for recycled goods - as well as being a spur for life-of-product laws.) Recycling in this country has never been a big money-maker, but traditionally, Republic at least broke even, or made a little profit.
I'm not writing this because I have some sort of cohesive, global or regional solution to the problem, or access to some heretofore hidden pot of money to make things all better. (Though passing some strict life-of-product and packaging laws nationally would help.) Just consider this an informational update, and a heads up of further changes ahead.
Now, as some of you may already know, historically, China would buy a great deal of our recyclables. For years, they would accept recyclables that had a contamination rate as high as 2%. This made things easy for us, and allowed many Americans to grow, if not lazy, at least complacent in their recycling habits.
But, as some of you may already also know, China recently changed their rules. They now will accept no recyclables with a contamination rate higher than 0.5%. That's zero-point-five. As in, a great deal less contaminated. As in, a low level of contamination that few, if any, American municipalities can currently hope to even come close to.
Which is to say, China is no longer a ready and dependable market for American recyclables.
Uh oh.
This is a fluid and evolving situation, so nothing hard, fast and permanent is locked in yet. (On one hand, I like to think it's a great impetus for this country to finally create and manage some internal markets for recycled goods - as well as being a spur for life-of-product laws.) Recycling in this country has never been a big money-maker, but traditionally, Republic at least broke even, or made a little profit.
Well, they're still picking up and transporting our recyclables, but, currently, they're losing around $100,000 a month on it. Yes, every month. Or, if you like, somewhere north of a million dollars a year.
I'm not writing this because I have some sort of cohesive, global or regional solution to the problem, or access to some heretofore hidden pot of money to make things all better. (Though passing some strict life-of-product and packaging laws nationally would help.) Just consider this an informational update, and a heads up of further changes ahead.
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