O’Donnell, Noreen. “What Happens When China Doesn’t Want Our Recyclables.” NBC4 Washington, NBC4 Washington, 15 Aug. 2018, www.nbcwashington.com/news/business/US-Struggles-With-What-to-Do-With-Tons-of-Recycled-Material-489971551.html.

 

In this article titled “Recycling Breaks Down: US Struggles to Keep Plastic From the Dump” Noreen O’Donnell discusses the effects that the new Chinese mandate poses on our current system of waste management. China was the main place that most of our recyclables ended up, however, they ended up getting so much waste that they couldn’t deal with it. It was not only polluting the air and the land, but was turning China into the world’s dumping ground.  Now That means certain items will no longer be recyclable. For example in Sacramento egg cartoons, medicine bottles and some yogurt containers will go to  landfills instead of being recycled. We simply do not have the facilities or resources to handle all of the waste we produce. All of the US was dependent on China, but especially California, who exports ⅓ of its recyclables and 62 percent goes to China. Now cities in California are beginning to restrict the types of plastic that can be distributed to only those that can be recycled easily. Especially now that many recyclables are all thrown into one bin to be sorted later and cross contamination occurs, even fewer plastics make it to be recycled.

 

This article is a great example of what happens when you produce without thinking of the consequences. The US has been producing and pawning its waste off on China for years now, and now that they won’t take it anymore, we are getting a rude awakening about how unsustainable our habits really are. Our system of making goods coupled with consumerism and poor recycling facilities has left us with few options. Now we must either bury our trash or burn it as the two main options. I find it very sad that common items like egg cartons or yogurt containers won’t be recycled anymore. I hope we can find a way to fix our broken system of production and waste management.