Recycling Contamination - Single Stream Recycling

Traditionally, recycling facilities across the United States have shipped much of their raw recyclable materials to China for processing. Plastics, paper and cardboard were gladly accepted by Chinese industries hungry to form new products from these raw materials. Recently, China is making efforts to reduce the amount, and increase the quality of raw recyclable materials entering the country. What does this mean for recycling materials Worldwide? Well, China is just not taking it.

China’s new, strict requirements mean that more loads will be considered contaminated if they contain any non-recyclable materials. Not only has China banned 24 different materials, but they also will not accept other items unless they are less than 0.5% impure. A small amount of garbage has the potential to ruin an entire batch of recycling. The result for American recyclers is tons of material that does not meet the new Chinese standards, facilities that are not designed to meet those standards, and an American public that continues to provide a contaminated recycling stream.