Climate Changed
China’s Blow to Recycling Boosts U.S.’s $185 Billion Plastic Bet
- Asian nation will stop accepting scrap imports as of Jan. 1
- New-made material will fill the gap, benefiting U.S. producers
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China is upending the global plastics market.
The world’s biggest user of scrap has stopped accepting shiploads of other countries’ plastic trash as it phases in a new ban. That’s bad news for the recycling industry, as China has been a major consumer of salvaged materials it processes into resin that ends up in pipe, carpets, bottles and other cogs of modern life.