Why Japan Wants Your Junk

For 30 years China has recycled more cardboard boxes, plastic bottles and old computers than any other nation. By doing so, it's saved millions of tons of resources and indirectly funded thousands of recycling programs and companies globally. But now it wants to stop. In July, China notified the World Trade Organization that it will soon prohibit the import of many types of recyclables. As a result, recycling programs and companies around the world are scrambling to find new destinations for the junk they once sent to China. In an increasing number of cases, that destination is a landfill.

It's a true recycling crisis, but it doesn't have to remain one. China’s decision -- publicly, the government claims the ban is driven by environmental issues associated with imported recycling -- effectively deprives its companies of a cheap source of raw materials. That’s incentive for other countries, companies and programs to invest in new, cleaner technology to take China’s place and gain access to those materials for themselves. Arch-rival Japan, long a major global recycling exporter, may be the first to seize the opportunity.