This could be bad

Interesting. You would think the people in Oregon wouldn't hate the Earth and polar bears so much.

China's national sword policy is understandable. I remember reading a story about how we were shipping useless garbage to China and about how they were getting PO'd about it.

One example the story told about was when they cracked open a shipping container only to find it full of old worn out tires. When they checked the shipping manifest it was listed as " Recycled Rubber Bands ".

Somebody here in the states had a wicked sense of humor.

A big part of the problem is all the people that consider themselves Die Hard recyclers. They have to recycle everything. They don't follow the rules / guidelines that the rubbish companies publish. I know a few of them from my full time job.

Originally Posted by mthomasdev

A big part of the problem is all the people that consider themselves Die Hard recyclers. They have to recycle everything. They don't follow the rules / guidelines that the rubbish companies publish. I know a few of them from my full time job.

The Wishcyclers. I know them from my workplace, too. Most are well-meaning and respond to frank but gentle criticism. There are some, though, who seem to view me as personally on the hook for keeping their insane trash out of the landfill. But the packaging world just keeps on mutating faster than markets are springing up to collect and process post-consumer waste. If this was 1943, these people would be national heroes. Now, they are just guilt-shackled environmentalists, tied to a wheel of unending garbage.

The tire person mentioned above was just trying to skirt local landfill regulations, though. In places where incineration isn't allowed or validated, and when they can't be landfilled, tires are becoming a bigger problem. They were already a notable issue, it's just that it's getting worse and worse.

The list of applicable products in the current WTO filing includes:

• Plastic waste from living sources
• Vanadium slag
• Waste textile materials
• Slag, dross (other than granulated slag), scalings and other waste from the manufacture of iron or steel.
• Ash and residues (other than from the manufacture of iron or steel), containing arsenic, metals or their compounds.
• Waste, parings and scrap, of plastics.
• Waste of wool or of fine or coarse animal hair, including yarn waste but excluding garnetted stock.
• Garnetted stock of wool or of fine or coarse animal hair.
• Cotton waste (including yarn waste and garnetted stock).
• Waste (including noils, yarn waste and garnetted stock) of man-made fibers.
• Used or new rags, scrap twine, cordage, rope and cables and worn out articles of twine, cordage, rope or cables, of textile materials.
• Other, including unsorted waste and scrap

Hobo, you might be in a safer place with your plastic collections, assuming many AZ plastics move along to Mexican processors instead of Californian export. About 25%, by volume, of everything that left California docks in 2016 for China was scrap material of some bent, according to SWANA. I haven't heard anything about how the Sword will affect CRV rates but, given the trouble that program was already seeing, I can't think it will be a good thing. But honestly, most #1 post-consumer plastic is processed domestically, at this point. There's also some hope places like Vietnam will pick up a bit of the slack. I will start talking to my plastics recyclers, the ones who do weird stuff like ABS and polycarbonate, about their immediate concerns. I had been asking months ago, when I first heard about the Sword, and everyone was basically just waiting to see what would happen.

Given how many metals/plastics/e-waste processors rely on shredding, versus d-man, the real trouble would seem to be coming from buyers and recyclers of whole units, unless you know that they are breaking things down in-house. Our primary e-waste handler does a ton of teardowns but on super low-value crap like alarm clocks and printers, they just move them along to specialist processors, many of whom export at least something. But I think for people who are shipping completely stripped product to market (as I assume many forum people are doing) it may be less of a blow than we fear.

The textiles thing has been a mess for years. Expect to see trouble at the Salvation Army. They export A LOT and with recovery rates as high as they are claiming (70-80%), a huge amount of that must be going to textiles reclamation. Their biggest competition, Goodwill, logs about 40% before export.

The real issue I see at the top of the food chain is that, in addition to seeing contamination cutoffs as low as three-tenths of a percent, the Chinese are issuing fewer import licenses in 2018 and invalidating a number of the ones which already exist. That's quite a gauntlet for recyclers to have to run. Even if a processor can meet the strict guidelines, that doesn't guarantee a slot at an overseas port. Given the incredibly short window of time for comment and critique on Sword policies, it's possible some of these licensees don't even know, yet, if they are or aren't going to be able to export.

Supply & Demand. That is what it is all about. If you have space, keep what you can (copper, etc.) until the price rebounds.

"The textiles thing has been a mess for years. Expect to see trouble at the Salvation Army. They export A LOT and with recovery rates as high as they are claiming (70-80%), a huge amount of that must be going to textiles reclamation. Their biggest competition, Goodwill, logs about 40% before export."

Based on what I see dumpster diving, the salvation army and good will near me just throw unwanted textiles in the dumpster already.

Those empty cargo ships going back to China needing ballast is why it is economical to ship waste to them. I can't see any other country being economical to send the stuff to.

Originally Posted by hobo finds

more bad news.... China announces import ban on 32 types of solid waste - China.org.cn

This may actually be a good thing. Processing this material here will create jobs, not only at recycling facilities, but also companies manufacturing the equipment. I know of a company within a 2 hour drive of me that is adding at least 2 lines in their plant. Their goal is to process material that used to be shipped to china. Their biggest new line, they are referring to as the meatball line. It will process electric motors (ISRI meatballs), transformers, copper bearing and other stuff. I think we will see more companies doing this because of China. Trump''s tax cuts for businesses are also fueling this move.

Originally Posted by auminer

Yeah, it's bad. If China won't recycle it, there's no **** way we can build a plant in the land of the free and the home of the brave (tree huggers) to recycle it. We haven't built an oil refinery since before most people reading this post were born.

It just costs too much to get through all the legal BS before you even break ground stateside. Because we have to make sure that there's a habitat for the twinkly-toed yellow-bellied sapsucker before we actually create any jobs.

I wonder if someone could build a recycling plant floating of the coast in international waters where laws aren't as strict.