Tuesday, September 24, 2013

China Puts up "Green Fence"

Boro-Wide Recycling Corp.
Maspeth, NY 718-416-1656

Last year China launched a plan to reduce pollution called the "Green Fence."  This policy bans the import of anything but the cleanest, must tidily organized bales of reusable rubbish, and bars some types all together.  This plan was originally supposed to end in November of 2013, but now Chines industry sources say that the Green Fence is here to stay. 

Before the Green Fence, when American households and businesses recycled their plastic, for the most part what they were truly doing was sending for collection at US recycling companies.  Some of this plastic would then be shredded and packed into bales, while other types were simply just bundled up as they were.  The US recycling companies would then send these bundles to China.  The more China made, the more it needed used plastics, eventually collecting around two-thirds of the US's plastic scrap each year, which was worth several billions of dollars.

China's collection of cheap plastic came at a cost.  Anything recyclers couldn't use was added to China's growing "trash mountains."  Even worse, a majority of recycling processors are small firms that pollute heavily and are hard to regulate.  The outrage of the Chinese public over the country's noxious air and polluted waterways have lead the government to take action and enact the Green Fence.  This means that much of the recyclables from the US are no longer being recycled. 

Boro-Wide Recycling encourages you to take conscious steps to ensure that your recycling is being dealt with and disposed of properly. 

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