Nothing new. But I think it was 2019 China stopped taking our trash. It was no longer profitable to have someone sort it and “recycle”. I think it was Penn and Teller. A long time ago said only metals are profitable.
Last I heard we were outsourcing our problems to India, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
One more issue that many environmental advocates raise is that the advanced recycling technology that Exxon claims to have made for recycling all kinds of plastic isn’t exactly effective…
…While this may sound like a viable solution to our plastic problem, it exacerbates the problem, as these processes have highly toxic fumes contributing to air pollution. They would also likely demand a lot of fossil fuels to superheat the recyclables, which adds more greenhouse gas emissions.
That’s why Exxon loves this, they win at both ends! More petroleum demand to make the products, more petroleum to “recycle” the products!