China and the Petroleum Industry Revisited: Solutions, Replacements, and Innovation

For the majority of the 2000s, China’s manufacturing industry allowed it to effectively deal with over half of the recycled plastic and other materials coming out of the United States. China was able to use recycled materials when processing new products, and the rest of the world benefited from this relationship, having the ability to sell their recycling and make a profit. In 2018, however, China enacted a ban on all recycling coming from the United States, effectively throwing the recycling industry into chaos. The United States faces a “national annual loss of $400 million,” and more than “60 cities and towns ended their curbside recycling programs.”

In November, I wrote an article on the impact that this recycling ban had on local American municipalities, and how this is linked to public deception by the petroleum industry. However, there are ways that we can address this problem, rather than dwelling on the pitfalls of China’s policy change and America’s inability to compensate. 

Economic and Political Solutions

Often, the burden of recycling falls on the consumers – understanding what is safe to recycle, and staying updated on the rules and regulations. Within a consumer accountability system, cities are forced to sort through recycling to remove “potential contaminants,” resulting in only about 9 percent of the products actually being recycled. 

However, there has been a push from some elected officials to create policies that require companies themselves to pay for the cost of recycling their products. Referred to as extended producer responsibility, or EPR, packaging bills, these policies could have multiple beneficial impacts. Not only would these policies place more emphasis on the responsibility of companies and corporations to aid in recycling, but this would incentivize companies to make their products more eco-friendly. If companies feel both economic and social pressure, this will provide a push to create more easily recycled products, as well as take some of the economic burden off of local municipalities. 

Other market incentives can also be used to influence the recycling industry. According to Columbia University’s Earth Institute, the key to fixing the American recycling system is to “[develop] the domestic market.” This refers to the process of improving technology, such as waste center technology and biodegradable plastic, and increasing the demand for recycled products. Not only would this, again, incentivize companies to create more recycled products, but would aid in the processing of recycling in the global market, which calls for more high quality recycled materials. 

Other potential changes to policy can also be used to change the recycling industry. Some suggest that it could be effective for governments to limit the “disposal of construction and demolition debris.” This would encourage recycling as well as the technological progression of sorting and processing facilities. 

In addition, some municipalities in Massachusetts have started requiring a percentage of recycled content in products released for purchase, which drives supply and demand for both companies and consumers. Los Angeles offers tax breaks for companies based on the degree of their recycling, and all properties in Austin, Texas are required to provide recycling and composting resources to their employees. Through economic and political change, the United States can slowly start to make progress in the recycling industry. 

Technological Solutions: Bio-Architecture

A different approach to America’s recycling problem comes in the form of technological change and other innovation, specifically in bio-architecture. Bio-architecture can be referred to, in part, as the “design and construction of buildings in an ecologically friendly manner.” However, some designers and innovators have been able to take this idea a step further. 

Neri Oxman, associate professor of media arts and sciences at MIT, has coined the phrase “material ecology,” or the “augmentation of objects and buildings with biological materials that can adapt, respond, and potentially interact with their surroundings.” Oxman has been on the forefront of technological innovation in the form of bio-architecture, and offers more than simple designs. 

Oxman has been able to showcase how she uses biological materials to make “fully recyclable grocery bags, wearable [clothing], and structural creations.” Using biological materials to replace products that are impossible or difficult to recycle is a viable option in the future. Outside of just consumer products, this could be imperative to the architecture industry. Not only would the need for recycling demolition scraps decrease, but the buildings themselves would be eco-friendly. 

Although the technology of bio-architecture is far from being fully developed, the progress is a hopeful sign of environmental change in the future, and a reprieve from the current recycling crisis.

What You Can Do?

Although consumers are not responsible for the burden of recycling on our own, there are some steps that we can take personally in order to help make a difference. 

• Buy recycled! Although I emphasized this in the previous article, this is one of the most important and accessible impacts that we can make individually. Buying recycled helps to facilitate a circular economy, and can help to create higher demand for recycled products.
• Sign petitions! There are many petitions available that are advocating for political and social change regarding recycling.
• Donate or volunteer with local municipal waste organizations or local cleanup efforts. Not only does this help local communities, but this can also help with education regarding recycling and its industry.