Recycle Ready

New Recycling Market Challenges

China, historically the largest recyclable scrap importer in the world, has made it clear that they want to improve their environment by increasing the recycling of domestic recyclable materials and restricting the importation of foreign recyclables. This has happened through a series of policies that are known collectively as “National Sword.”

In 2018, China imposed a number of restrictions on imported recyclables, banning some items and creating tougher contamination standards for what they do still accept. Imported recyclables may now only contain 0.5% of any type of contaminant. For example, food bits in a recyclable container such as a plastic salad bowl is considered a contaminant.

What have the GreenWaste family of companies done in response?

GreenWaste has always performed far better than industry standards in maintaining low contamination rates.

In reaction to ever heightening standards, the GreenWaste Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) has added staff to the sorting line and slowed down throughput. MRF workers are inspecting loads as they come in and drivers are scrutinizing material as they collect it. GreenWaste has installed millions of dollars in equipment and has significantly increased labor to ensure higher-than-industry diversion in these challenging times.

GreenWaste sells to both domestic and international markets. GreenWaste prioritizes locating domestic markets, but there is insufficient domestic processing capacity to manage all of the material that GreenWaste produces. GreenWaste continually seeks innovative markets and partners to remain on the forefront of recycling.