Page 3 - Everyday Kitsap 2019

WASTE WISE

Waste Away

A crisis has people wondering: what is recycling’s future?

fter decades of public
education campaigns, most
Americans recycle. It feels like
Aan easy way to help the Earth.
Give dirty containers a quick rinse, pop
them in the blue cart, and they’re taken
away to become something new.
Governments and waste management
companies have invested lots of time
and money into modern recycling. It’s
now a critical part of dealing with the
waste Americans create (4.4 pounds of
waste per person per day, more than
any other country). Yet less than half
this waste is recycled or composted.

So why can’t we just recycle more?
Well, the current recycling system is in
trouble.
Since this announcement, America’s amount of stuff we buy and toss! Even
Recycling’s Global Crisis waste management companies if another nation replaces China as the
world’s #1 recycling buyer, we still need
have struggled to sell some types of
For the last 25 years, China’s booming recyclables. Yet these companies are to fix some serious flaws in the system.
manufacturing industry was eager still working hard to keep recyclables The first flaw is that manufacturers do
to buy America’s recyclables. China out of landfills. not pay for the disposal or recycling of
needed cheap and reliable raw Metal cans, corrugated cardboard, the items they make. That responsibility
materials for making the stuff they glass, and high-quality plastics like falls to you, the consumer. Because they
were selling back to us. Even if our water bottles and milk jugs can still do not pay this cost, they sometimes
recyclables were low quality, they be recycled in North America. Mixed design products and packaging that
cleaned them up and used them. China paper is harder to sell domestically, so cannot be reused, repaired, or easily
was the #1 buyer of our recyclables, recyclers currently sell most of it to SE recycled.
and Washington state relied on them as Asian recyclers. Low-quality plastics
many American manufacturers closed have never been accepted in Kitsap’s One solution is to create “producer
or moved overseas. recycling program because they are responsibility programs” that shift
In 2018, China made an announcement not recyclable with our region's current the cost and responsibility of waste
back to the manufacturers. These
that changed recycling overnight. They technologies. programs incentivize manufacturers
restricted imports of certain recyclables, to create long-lasting, reusable,
including mixed paper, most plastics, Our Recycling System is repairable, or recyclable products.
and dirty recyclables contaminated Flawed Washington’s government has created
with plastic bags, food residue, and these programs for TVs and computers,
trash. They wanted to clean up their Americans are consuming more and mercury-containing light bulbs, and
environment, and a growing Chinese more stuff, and manufacturers design solar panels (and recently, paint!), but
middle class was creating enough much of it to be used once and then similar programs are not yet in place for
recyclables to meet their need. thrown away. Our current recycling common items like packaging.
system simply cannot keep up with the

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KitsapGov.com | Spring 2019 | pg 3