The United States' recycling industry is facing a growing crisis. China earlier this year announced policy changes that restrict its imports of the U.S.’s recyclables—changes with tremendous implications, since a third of the U.S.’s recycling exports have historically gone to China. We explored those policy changes in May, speaking with recycling companies and policy experts about what’s changed, and how to find new markets for all that plastic and paper we can no longer ship overseas.
So what does this crisis reveal about the robustness and the fragility of the recycling industry, in California and across the U.S.? What comes next? To answer these questions, we turned to Kate O’Neill, a professor of environmental science, policy and management at UC Berkeley who’s currently writing a book on the global waste trade. Listen to the audio above for the full interview.
