![]() VOA NEWS: 00:14 Before the china trash ban it had been a good relationship.ĪBC ACTION NEWS: 00:47 It's creating a huge mess.Ġ1:02 I know a lot of people have been asking me, what are we going to do with recyclables, we don't know.Ĭhina’s decision to stop taking foreign waste was called National Sword. Today, what happened when China stopped taking the world’s trash.ĬBS NEWS: 00:10 When it comes to importing garbage no country bought in more of it than China. I’m Gabrielle Sierra, and this is Why it Matters. ![]() Since then, we have been forced to see just how difficult and delicate recycling can be, and the unseen ways that our local towns and cities rely on the rest of the world. And just like that, the world’s recycling system fell apart. For years our recycling wasn’t going down the road, but halfway around the world, to China.īut then, in 2018, China changed its mind and refused to accept our trash. Throw something in the blue bin and BAM! It comes back a little while later as something new. The Sesame Street gang, and other beloved childhood models, taught us that recycling was a local issue. SESAME STREET: 00:00 Ahh that is some refreshing milk, now just gotta take my milk jug and throw it in the trash, wait a min this milk jug is made of plastic, it's not trash, it needs to be recycled! There ya go, hey did you ever wonder what happens to stuff when you recycle it. Something we grew up thinking we were getting right. But there is something happening right now that does. Part of why we don’t keep foreign policy issues in mind is that it’s hard to understand how they affect our daily lives. Look, I work at a foreign policy think tank, and when I first came here, it would have been really hard for me to answer that question. We don’t learn much about international relations in school. Most of us don’t spend our time following the activities of foreign governments. If you can’t think of one, don’t panic, you’re not alone. Name a foreign policy decision that has directly affected you. “ American cities confront a ‘slow-moving recycling crisis’,” CBS News “ Where Will Your Plastic Trash Go Now That China Doesn’t Want It?,” NPR “ China’s Waste Ban Is Causing A Trash Crisis In The U.S.,” Vice News Tonight “ What Happens to the Plastic We Throw Out,” National Geographic “ ‘Moment of reckoning’: US cities burn recyclables after China bans imports,” Guardian “ Hundreds of US cities are killing or scaling back their recycling programs,” Vox “ Is This the End of Recycling?,” Atlantic “ China’s Environmental Challenge: Political, Social and Economic Implications,” Elizabeth C. The story of China’s National Sword policy shows how one decision by one powerful country can affect individual lives in dozens of nations around the world. The reversal sent shock waves through the global recycling system, and forced many towns and cities to start burning and dumping material that they used to recycle. Then, in 2018, China banned most waste imports. For years, industrialized nations across the world shipped enormous quantities of recyclable material to China.
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