For 30 years China has recycled more cardboard boxes, plastic bottles and old computers than any other nation. By doing so, it saved millions of tons of resources and indirectly funded thousands of recycling programs and companies globally. But now it wants to stop. In July, China notified the World Trade Organization that it will soon prohibit the import of many types of recyclables. As a result, recycling programs and companies around the world are scrambling to find new destinations for the junk they once sent to China. In an increasing number of cases, that destination is a landfill.
It's a true recycling crisis, but it doesn't have to remain one. China's decision — publicly the government claims the ban is driven by environmental issues associated with imported recycling — effectively deprives its companies of a cheap source of raw materials. That's incentive for other countries, companies and programs to invest in new, cleaner technology to take China's place and gain access to those materials for themselves. Archrival Japan, long a major global recycling exporter, may be the first to seize the opportunity.
Like so many other countries, Japan has for decades relied on China as a major destination for its recycling. This solved an immediate problem but was also a boon to Chinese manufacturers. After all, while environmental concerns have driven the expansion of recycling programs throughout the developed world, what goes into the blue bin is also manufacturing feedstock. In the United States, for example, almost 40 percent of the aluminum supply comes from recycled resources. Close to half of China's copper supply is recycling-based.