China's Waste Ban Is Causing A Trash Crisis In The U.S. (HBO)
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- čas přidán 30. 08. 2018
- China imports more recyclable goods than any other country in the world. But earlier this year, China stopped accepting a long list of imported plastic and paper waste, and implemented much stricter guidelines for what it's willing to take in.
The dramatic policy change is part of a national campaign to reduce the country’s carbon footprint, but China's decision to no longer be the trash collector for the rest of the world is causing major problems for U.S. waste processing operations.
Across the U.S., recyclers had been accustomed to sending major portions of their paper and plastic to China, but now they're scrambling to find other takers.
Already, more than a dozen states have started to giving companies waivers to throw out recyclables, including Massachusetts, where more than 4,000 tons of single-stream recyclables and more than 10,000 tons of glass have been sent to landfills.
VICE News traveled to Massachusetts to visit a processor that used to have an average of a few dozen one-ton cubes of recyclables sitting around and now has thousands.
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Across the U.S., recyclers had been accustomed to sending major portions of their paper and plastic to China, but now they're scrambling to find other takers.
WATCH NEXT: How To Rid The Ocean Of Plastics - bit.ly/2BMzMMK
*Let's blame China again.*
What about India? Can 1.3B Indians do something?
It's because China is having a trash emergency, they're producing to much of their own trash.
@@JeffreyAllanBackowskido you know what happens to the impurities and toxic chemicals that are derived from millions of tons of foreign rubbish that needs to be recycled?
In America burning the toxic leftover byproducts from recyling or putting them in landfills would still contaminate the air and also earth by leaching toxic chemicals and heavy metals into ground water.
The compounding load of receiving the western rubbish is not worth it. China doesn't get paid enough anyways and they can make their own virgin plastics and cardboard from importing petroleum and timber from Iran and russia etc.
@eric blood China Is 4 times the size of American population but uses less than twice the energy usage.
It is currently the global leader in renewable energy. And it build electric high speed rail and buses plus eventually banning petrol cars to reduce smog and pollution.
Recycling those rubbish is toxic and emits alot of carbon emissions that pollute the city. There's not a lot of profit but plenty of toxicity and pollution from recycling china's own rubbish from 1.4 billion people.
They also have to recycle rubbish from 1 billion westerners from Europe, America. Etc. While foreign countries don't pollute and dirty their own country at all by not recycling.
China doesn't have to recycle for other countries. They have every right to refuse to accept toxic recyclables. Regardless of how westerners whine about it.
VICE News how about Vice do something useful and cover that plastic recycling in Scotland where there using plastic instead of crude oil to make roads???
I work at a paper cycling plant, these guys are offering the worst of the worst when it comes to trash. It's not just paper that these guys are bailing, it's everything, and that's why nobody wants it. My company certainly wouldn't accept bails from these guys. They were taking advantage of an easy market when it comes to the Chinese. Now that they've lost that market, they better refine their sorting methods.
Wait technology like this exists? Why dont recycling companies turn to that, I would of thought thats how recycling would of worked in the first place.
Oooohh, Now it makes sense..
+Robert Adams, Bump this thread to the top.
Robert Adams wow, great response, bump this comment to the top!
I wish Vice would tell us how much that recycling company makes every year. They made it look like that company was a non profit.
And this is also why I have trouble trusting Vice. If not for Robert Adams ..we would have not known of this important detail.
America needs to handle their own garbage. This just proves they don't have good solutions in place
this isn't garbage, these recyclables have a market value. think of it as raw materials that needs a lot of processing
@@rurutuM
You telling me it's cheaper to grow, harvest, process and manufacture paper? Just an example. How about exploring, drilling, extracting, processing oil to then manufacture a plastic bottle. Is it really cheaper than simply sorting and processing a bottle? It makes no sense
@@jahmanborneo1343 yes it does
They should copy sweden :D they recycle everything + recives trash from uk
@@sergeybebenin you'd think so, but often the answer is yes, it is.
China is doing the most right he should have done this a long back so that USA would have understood the importance of environmental issues.
This is the most idiotic statement I've ever heard in my life!
@@lifeisgood339Before going to the U.S.. I first time knew that the American colleges never turn their parking lots' lights off according to "safety concern". Also, some American ask why I turn off my shower water during the time I am using shampoo or body-wash. It truly surprised me that most of the American I have seen waste much more water and electricity per capita than Chinese do. Trust me, American produce most wastes among the world, but Trump (who doesn't believe in global warming, saying that it is a lie made up by CCP) keeps blaming China for no reason. You guys genuinely don't understand the importance of environmental issues. You are just some spoiled kiddos by other developing countries like China. And your comment is the most idiotic statement I've ever heard in my life!
@@lifeisgood339 lmao ratioed
Theyshould change the title to "countries sending waste to China is causing China to become polluted". THey are making it look like its China's fault and china is to take blame.
Yes that's right
Be positive, it is a chance to create job opportunity in US right?
@Alyaris R use some Mexicans though. It is not the first job Americans don't want after all.
never737
Americans only ‘want’ high paying jobs.
@@randybowen4675 Cant wait until trump builds that wall and see how much of a shitshow it will turn out
@@randybowen4675 Americans don't even want those job's
@@gregory22444ableify they will if the pay is good, but it's not
China literally telegraphed this for years, I have no idea why people are acting surprised.
Liam Vertal - i agree but the answer is , because we never deal with an impending crisis until the shit has hit the fan. Just like Social Security, National Debt, infrastructure, pollution ...etc.
It's also an opportunity for the trash exporting countries to dispose of it themselves creating jobs.
Liam Vertal we are stupid in the USA
Yup, they gave a five year warning, but guess what ? Western governments were pocketing the mountains of eco fees consumers paid for the last three decades and property taxes for recycling into their pockets without investing a dime back in actual recycling plants ! That guy calling his operation "recycling" is laughable, all he is doing is sorting and then they can't even do that properly ! ...LoL
The sad truth is that America is caught up with identity politics rather than pressing issues like sustainable energy/waste removal and gun control
Good for the world that China is making progress. USA should take care of it's own waste problem and not blame China for not doing it for USA anymore. USA waste should be recycled in USA. That saves a lot of shipping C02.
China has made more progress as a country in the last 10 years than USA has done in a century. Sure technology in USA has advanced a lot (mostly in military, space and computer technology), but the general mindset and philosophy of that country is still extremely old-fashioned.
Lmao majority of chinas wealth building cities are slums and ghetto cities, shitty humanitarian laws too
i agree. at the same point we should stop importing from china which is the main portion of our waste. so once we stop importing in from china we can make it better here. sure we might get hit with a budget pinch but yeah it will be for the best.
One big reason this works is because of all the empty shipping containers we send back to China. Those containers bring the iPhones and TV's over and we will still ship them back. I'm not sure how much CO2 is saved.
Which part don't you understand Shannon, china needs the recycle, they need the plastic and the cardboard they make everything in this world if you go to stores and you look up every single thing that is on the Shelf , it is made in China from shampoos to cereal boxes to whatever it is it's made in China they need the plastic they need the carport to keep up production
So ... each country must deal with their own waste.
The USA has no excuse. If only a fraction of the money spent on weapons were diverted to recycling, and doing it properly, everyone EVERYONE, would be better off.
So the message to the Pentagon: you don't need to create wars in other countries to keep your arms industry going. Invest in a better, cleaner world, and fight the "War on Waste".
Of course it's only portrayed as USA having it bad. The ban affected so many other developed nations. Here in Australia we're facing the same problems, except we're doing something about it, like, recycling it ourselves..
Lmao. Please watch the entire video. They specifically state that its affecting several other countries also.
M8 u dumbasses act like no1 in the US has been recycling all these years.
your problem, you solve it, China is not going to take it.
Recycling my ass, lmao. Aussie keeps sending their waste to South East Asia. Your words is totally a joke. Open your eyes. Educate yourself more.
"We do recycling...by sending them to China."
It is not a single example of disguised Chinese business.
so true
Made·in·China↻shipped·to·US
RE↺cycle
😯
Дмитрий Д firstful u should ask ur self what is disguised Russian business !putinlist?! Russian spay in US and other countries ? Russian Mafia or Russian hookers all over the world and named them self as culture exchange ambassadors?!
You do know that China buys it right? Or are you just stupid
I'm Italian and i've been to US recently. It's astonishing how everything is wrapped in plastic. Plastic everywhere. Hotels didn't have real plates, everyone used plastic one-time plates and cutlery. Then, almost everything went to a single trash container. Wtf. In my country they've even banned the plastic bags at the supermarkets, and we have a shitton of different wastebins for different stuff. It is possible to have a low percentage of contamination: just stop throwing everything into the same container.
+DerpEye Doesn't really make sense to compare Italy, a far from perfect first world country, to the US. It may seem like those two things are comparable. But they are only in the sense that apples are comparable to tennis balls. Both are round, both have about the same size, both can be yellow or green, both may not cost very much, but that's about it. Italy is clearly superior to the US.
And Italy is broke. (Saying this as a lover of all things Italian, material and cultural.)
which hotel you've been to? a hotel in da hood?
@sherwood - the US would be as broke as much, if the world wouldn't pay oil and goods mostly in dollars.
Problem is your paper bags suck...i be to Italy last month and was walking back from supermarket and off 4 bags i carry 3 bags just crack and all glass bottles i was caring broke ...never happend with plastic bags ..one nice girl who work in fashion store and saw it give me 3 bags from here store for free so i can carry rest home ..but guess what ...2 off 3 broke 2 before i come home..so in the end i came to hotel with 1/2 off stuff i buyed in supermarket
早就该这样了……
"This is what happens when you rely on another country and they decide they don't want your stuff anymore" the who said that was 100% right we need to start taking care of our own stuff.
This is turning into WallE isn't it
oof tragic
I think that movie had a lot warnings...how the planet was over run by trash, they relied on technology for everything and they was ignorant to the most basic things in life.
Indeed.. its future of earth...
eeee
Exactly
Title of this vid should be "China is no longer buying recycled plastics from the USA"
"unrecycled" mate.. "unrecycled"; recycling is actually the whole proccess, when/where you're coming up, at the end with The Product - which is mass/material, hich can be used straight away to create new item... (you want to say "China is not longer taking segrageted plastic from U.S., whic hdoesn;t want to be bothered to deal with it"
"Warped perception"
Nobody wants to deal with Amerikkka anymore 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂😂😂 Amerikkka is DOOMED!!!!!
And it wasn't just USA, the restrictions are for every country
"Warped perception" don't spread BS dude !!!!!!!
Recycling should be the last resort. First step is REDUCE!
Easy to say, lol.
I like my mushroom packed individually, one by one. and I love to see those plastic trash ship to Philippine which is the main contributor for pacific plastic pollution, and suffocate some sea turtle and birds with wrapping paper.
Binti S easy to do. I have been living almost zero waste for a little over a year now. It’ll easy to do when you pace yourself and do it step by step
@@dozeoff2180 It is easy to do, maybe not for profit hungry pigs. But is doable. How do think china was able to recycle so much. If Trump claims our economy is so good we should be able to afford it.
I think the problem is that we believe everything should be profitable, but things like recycling should be done even when it is not profitable.
Those are not "recycling" companies, those are "sorting" companies.
They sorting out the recyclable products n it will be bailed up n ready for shipment
It's a distribution center
Yep, no recycling going on in those plants
USA, the country of fakes, Fake Movies made with CGI, Fake athletes pumped full of steroids, Fake food made from Genetically modified High Fructose Corn syrup, Fake Meats from animals grown with Growth Hormones. Fake Democracy, Fake Market Economy of the PetroDollar, for the PetroDollar, by the PetroDollar.
So true because they are not the one's recycling China is, they take the credit well China suffocates and take there rubbish and get blamed for polluting
Chinese policy is not the problem. U.S. government need to figure out new policies to help itself with trash.
Shaoyang Chen Too many Americans put soiled containers into their bins. This is why China doesn’t want American recyclables.
It’s not cost effective, because people are lazy/ignorant.
Shaoyang Chen They’ll have to first get rid of the trash that they call “government”
Shaoyang Chen Chinese were dumping this crap into the see polluting the whole world.
@@sakal88 link, facts, news. unless you show these your statement is just wrong
yea, just google it, there are islands of trash in the sea
Damn, my neighbor refuses to take my trash. Screw him!
Send the wastes to Taiwan, we are glad to accept wastes coming from USA.
We are the loyalest watch dog of the great USA.
SpringRoll Wang Dude, u have got the sense of humor!
No, china has said no. Taiwan is a part of China, a fact not disputed by any Nation on Earth.
Oh, oh, look out, here's comes the triggered Taiwanese ....
What is china dog? I only heard of republic of china🇹🇼🇹🇼🇹🇼🇹🇼
@@markmark5269 Taiwan is a country but china isnt
@@markmark5269 the land belongs to Taiwan cry 😀👍
Never knew we were just shipping out recyclables. Thought we were actually recycling them. Can we not have our own recycling centers?????
We don't have the amount of infrastructure to support all the waste we're consuming.
Doge Roge sounds like good long term U S job creation opportunity!
ftbx1 and make what with it? We don’t make anything anymore
@@tielohnoms
Yea that's the problem. And why exactly is that the case? Need to build facilities to compensate
We have recycling centers, we just don't have processing plants to accommodate.
Isn't this what Trump wanted? Now that China has stricter rules, shouldn't businesses IN THE US start stepping up and fill that gap, and creating jobs? COME ON CAPITALISM.
It's only been some months
Thats what protectionism does, it kill jobs, don't call this capitalism.
@@volingrad I think ur right will have to see if someone in the US opens a giant recycling plant. Big project
@@shidcat9322 no not good enough
volingrad Protectionism is about tariff on commodities. Never bout trash.
Good job China! Support from Malaysia!
tk
Lol Americans pissed about having to deal with their own waste.
Tom it’s not waste it’s recyclables these are just recycle businesses losing money
@@thegraffitiplayground1325 It's unfortunate that some people will have their livelihoods affected by this but packaging up waste and shipping them to China is not recycling, sorry. Most of this garbage that gets sent to China just end up in landfills there anyway.
@@thegraffitiplayground1325 if it can't be used, then it's waste.
Recycling is the biggest scam to hit the planet, makes people feel good to put it into the "Green' bin, then walk away and forget about it then go wash their hair sending all the shampoo chemicals and bleached toilet paper down the drain into our waterways. Just fucking hypocrites.
Every coutry should deal with its own shit
You say that because you're not understanding the fact that countries like the USA are importing so much stuff. You have to have an outlet, a lot of western countries are just going to pile up unless they are willing to remanufacture and export the waste as goods.
@@jeevanjacob4102, well then dont import a bunch oft crap.
Im German, I know.
Abhay,is that a shrinking glacier in your pocket ,or did you 400 HP SUV take a shit on everybody living 1 meter above sea level...USAUSAUSA
@@eloquenz.5236 I am Icelandic. Born in freiburg (west germany). Saw the system there. Amazing work.
Jeevan Jacob all countries import and export goods. We could utilize the waste, and it would create jobs if they could or would open manufacturing plants to rework or find a way to utilize the waste. Each country should deal with their own. You don't go next door to take a crap every time you have to go do you?
Someone please tell me why we do not recycle and use our own material?
Cause we want China to die from the smog it creates but we do just not on the same scale.
Because we are wasteful and not enough youth wanna get their hands dirty. They would prefer to work behind computers and be paid the same. Have you noticed Germanophobe these people are? If you were to offer $15 hr to clean the sewers. They would say no. I know they get paid more then that. But every second you see them washing their hands in germ x and practically scared of a person sneezing. I live in America and have noticed how cleanness is being to clean.
This is pathetic. We cant even recycle our own crap in America
The costs of property, workers, the regulations and laws dictating what can be done all play a part to make it hard to turn a profit where as their are other countries in the world which can turn a profit due to the same things (property, workers, and regulations) I mentioned it in the comment above this but Africa will most likely be a prime candidate to take over this work in the near future. They already take a lot of things from around the world to break down. Unfortunately, they don't have much regulation and although it provides work to many over in several countries in Africa, it also shortens their lifespans significantly. There are documentaries about it, I think some are uploaded on youtube. China is becoming more expensive as their citizens make more money. They want change, they don't want to take on some of the work they used to as it causes really bad pollution and they don't need it to make money anymore. As their property, workers, and regulations all change, we can't expect them to want to continue certain lines of work like this one.
@@BlackRose85789 I don't think you know what the risks are
It’s not just China, other Asian countries like Malaysia, Philippine, Indonesia and those region countries are banning trash too.
US Recycling Programs: "Let's ship to China"...really tells you a lot about the US
The U.S. needs to invest in sustainability and make it's citizens recycle. We need to develop recycling facilities and reuse those materials internally.
yeah, but that takes like, work and stuff. it's easier to just import all the shit made in China and send them the trash. then when the bill comes in we can have some convenient disasters and just parcel out parts of the country to wealthy overseas developers to avoid the inevitable default on all of the loans that the slaves of the U.S. were signed over for as collateral.
Under this corrupt Administration?
We have been trying to do something as simple as banning plastic bags nationwide. It has been shot down over and over again in NY where I live.
@@o0GrayMatters0o totally agree with that
It needs a better reverse logistics
Old Bull Lee isn’t it what Obama was preaching??! But No, we got to drop it and focus on coals. Ah
Trump could use it to build his wall lol
seriously this is a great practical idea.
Eman Eman that shit can actually work considering each weigh a fucking ton
THAT CAN ACTUALLY WORK
Hahahahhaha
Lol
A 40-foot high wall of garbage will probably be a better de-motivator to would-be illegal immigrants than a proper, professional-looking wall.
"The great garbage avalanche of 2505" -Idiocracy (2006)
Ne, those trash end up in the Ocean, not on land though. Can you imagine USA ship their trash to Philippine which is one of the main contributor for ocean plastic problem.
Were in a trash crisis, but yet when you buy bulk food. You may have 1 large box with multiple little boxes inside.
We need to stop living as a throwaway society.
@FantomOmega and Fast Fashion, Convenience Foods, Electronics, etc.
I could be doing this for days.
Western kapitalist society doesnt favour sustainability.
*Reduce* Reuse Recycle ♻️
I'm sure you can't go a day without throwing something away...
Of course we need to function, watch a Documenary called Fast Fashion you'll get what I am saying.
The economics of recycling is not effective. Governments need to force the companies who manufacture packaging to pay for the cost of disposal and recycling of their products. Right now, packaging is too cheap, because the environmental costs are not considered. It is produced, sold, used, then thrown in the recycling bin and becomes someone else's problem.
Regulation does impose costs on everyone in the purchasing chain, down to the end consumer, and can be inflationary, and hurt the economy. But, the free-market system is ill-equipped to handle this kind of problem. There are always going to be new economic opportunities, but we only have one planet Earth. The companies that produce the products that generate/become waste, should be taxed for that waste so the "true cost" is more accurately reflected in the price of the product.
Americans have been living at the expense of China pollution for years. The world act as if China caused all the problems 🤣
Jason Salz Too bad statistics are taken into account when the trash and recyclables are in the US, not when they reach docks in China.
too bad that all the goods mostly used by Americans are manufactured in china this does add to amount of pollution in china
Stop buying shity products made over seas. Buy American
James, but then could Americans afford American made products?? LOL
too bad chinas pollution is from shit like coal/oil power plants that are massively outdated and produce more pollution than plants from the 50's. too bad this recycled material is EXACTLY what they make all their products out of, for far cheaper than actually producing MORE oil based plastics. too bad youre a fucking moron.
Recycling fee = shipping cost. Recycling= Shipping to Ghana, India, China and boasting about being clean.
U.S. needs to stop relying on others for our waste. We need to reuse that stuff somehow and make it another commodity.
We actually do. I worked outside of DC for awhile at a place that took recycled plastic and created things.
Siding for your house, those hard plastic benches you see outside are made with sorted/recycled plastic.
We just create so much it's hard to use it all, again.
@@dustinhiggins710 That's great! But the US as a whole needs to practice this, not just one city. All that garbage doesn't even have to be made into something else. It could be an energy source of some sort. Yes, burning can release horrible toxins/pollution, but if there was a way to not just release it into the air but capture it and make it fuel for something else.
Really?, you're making this out as if China is the bad guy here, that's utter bollocks, you could start by producing less waste, or maybe handling your own waste yourselves rather than dumping it on anyone elses doorstep.
Who is making China out as the bad guy? Hell, in the last 30 seconds of the video, VICE said it's a good thing in the end for the economy.
China is the ones producing the trash in the US. So are you saying the US should stop buying goods from China, or are you saying China should produce less?
Also the people of China don’t have a a high minimum wages compared to the USA (if they even have one). So stuff like this doesn’t cost that much to do.
Tommy Johansen I don’t mind them doing this because while it made an issue for recyclable exports in the US it will seriously hurt China’s economy because of the large number of recycling plants now lying dormant with no recycling imports and Chinese industries now having to import goods normally created by processing recycled goods at an increased cost.
Tommy Johansen most of this waste is plastic trash products FROM China.
Oh the irony
Not just the US, even here in Australia as well as New Zealand. The whole movement for banning single use plastic isn’t about the turtles, but more over the fact that China is no longer taking our low grade recyclables.
Except for the fact that we somehow need to find a material that can be mass produced, doesn't cost much, can stand a bit of wear and tear, doesn't impact the the climate and can be recycled. That's the role that these one use plastics fill.
Biodegradable, is the the answer.
Industrial hemp can be used to make paper and biodegradable plastics.
Wow, never thought about it that way. Thanks!
Hemp plastic is $2.35/pound currently while polypropylene pellets are around $1.00-$1.15/pound.
Hemp certainly has potential but right now no company in their right mind would use it because it just isn't as cost effective as petroleum plastics. Also we are already having a global problem with area used for production, so adding something that needs to be grown would probably add another large burden on top of it.
“We never thought it would come to the point (where we have to deal with out own waste)”
What?
Same thing with SKM recycling in Australia, we used to have a highly organised shed but now all.our product has just backed up and is always full
It is incredibly, incredibly hard to be sympathetic when it was nearly a decade that China has been saying they will end their acceptance of recycling and trash products. There was wayyyy more than enough time to set up infrastructure.. this crisis is self-made and ridiculous... as if the entire USA. A ridiculous State with ridiculous programmes
Dávid Danos
Pot calls kettle black!
Well “ridiculous” Canada is just as much to blame.
www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4586602
@@BennyB5555 I have been to Florida and Quebec. Everyone recycled in Quebec and in Florida cheap restaurants fed you on plastic plates with plastic knives and forks. They didn't recycle, they couldn't be bothered to clean real plates. If you think a country that derives a large portion of its energy from hydroelectric, has 1/10th the population of the US is as much to blame you need to pull your head out of your backside.
Miles Williams
Congratulations! Suddenly you are an expert!? Hardly. There more to the USA and Canada than Florida and Quebec homeboy! You clearly missed my comment of pot calling kettle black. Not going to get into a pissing contest!
@@m1leswilliams Doesn't the US have 10 times the population of Canada?
*nothing rediculous has ever happened in canada.*
UHHHH SOURCE FUCKING NEEDED
How about recycling your own waste products? You'd think the richest country on earth could at least afford that. Shameful to say the least.
Bestline7 - But we are lazy and don’t like dealing with our problems
cheaper to let other people do it
They aren't the richest.
The Money they owe China is enourmous.
Here is a realistic and damn good idea. We already have recycled lumber plants for things like park benches. Why doesn't America start making houses out of the waste? Paper=drywalling and plastic=lumber. We would effectively be the only country to do this, itd be way cheaper to make a house (once we have plants systematically running) and the chances of reducing our wood consumption would greatly reduce. I see a huge challenge but an answer that provides jobs, homes, and incentives for the world to mimic and possibly reverse our debt, through exportation of these plastic rot free lumber planks.
Did I miss anything vital in this multi million dollar investment/solution?
The US owes trillions of dollars to China for a decade now
Container sterilization zones in super markets, it feels like Im bring home more packaging than food when I go shopping ☹️
Thankful for these guys actually working in the recycling industry. We need to show this video to other people to show how important it is for everyone to do their part in recycling!
I am so glad this is happening because it will make everyone, ESPECIALLY the USA re-think the harm they and we have been doing to the planet. Time to be more responsible of our consumption and wastefulness.
...muhahahaha dreams are free.
Is good because will create jobs in US. China not robbing USA job.
PeaceKeeperMoe .....
Have you ever read the book Living Waters by Viktor Schauberger?
The environmental problem is much more serious than you think ...
Most people wont care.
I think the US might, eventually.... but as the video states. A lot of places are just saying "F**k it" and waiving the recyclables to be dumped in landfills. Which is horrible to say the least. It puts a bandaid on a gunshot wound just so they don't have to deal with the bigger problem. An essential culture shift needs to be forced on a national level in the US to force better practices on all levels (individual persons, businesses, states, etc). China's move is the right move. It will cause a lot of complaining but it's necessary and will be for the best in the long run.
When the whole recycling craze started in the early 90s it was always taught as the three Rs.
Reduce: Reduce the total amount of waste you make.
Reuse: If you make waste, attempt to reuse it for something else. Today we call this "upcycling".
Recycle: This was always supposed to be the last resort. If you HAD to make waste and you COULD NOT reuse it, then you should recycle it.
Somewhere along the line we got it twisted and thought recycle was the cure all. It was never meant to be.
DONT buy things in plastic clamshells. DON'T use straws or stoppers from starbucks, DON'T buy beer with non biodegradable six pack rings.
By this time I think it requires strict policies and enforcement. Some people will adjust their buying habits but most will not.
Great comment.
Exactly and now people think you dont have to reduce or reuse, just throw in a recycle bin. Our little city is now paying a much larger tipping fee for recyclables, than the trash that goes to the incinerator
Actually I toured recycling plants in the 1970’s. The technology has been available for years and years. It’s the “give a shit” that US industry lacks.
I was born in the 80s and I never saw anything about recycling until the mid/early 90s. I know it existed, but household curbside recycling didn't exist for a long time.
I'd love to see how the list of the countries "that produce the most pollution" is affected after this.
If China is capable of processing recycle and sell it around the world, why can't US do the same thing. Most plastics we buy in the market are from China.
President Xi heart that Trump want more jobs back to the US. And Xi decided to help him, now American can build up a new industry and create more jobs, Even though that's not the job they want. LOL
Trash was dealt in China with people's bare hands, as the labor price going up in China, it is no longer profitable or less profitable to import western trash.
Whereas in the US, labor is already expensive and the technology is not yet developed to deal with trash automatically, makes it easier to just ship all trash to other countries where labor is cheap.
Or Americans could take responsibility for recycling our waste ourselves...
or we could put it in the landfill...
Don't think Mexico is going to be taking any of your garbage.
+SkyGemini
Trump could make Mexico take if they want to be a part of NAFTA; along with paying for his wall.
Good be because it create jobs for USA citizen.
Why don't you take responsibility by harvesting all your resources yourself first?
Sorting and shipping away waste is not recycling.
It is if the place it's shipped to uses it for something...
@@nodak81 no. it's still just sorting and shipping away. If the USA would make something out of it, the problem shown wouldn't exist.
@@nodak81 maybe recycling is illegal now in the USA.
+Rain Maker It's still recycling.
Your local city isn't going to, and shouldn't, be trying to build fucking factories to dispose of your shit. They've always been going to be selling it off to a recycler.
@@seigeengine The fact remains that the US is doing none of the recycling. No, we don't need every town building an entire factory, but I'm damn sure on the state level there's enough capacity for that to be done. Trash is being shipped all over the place anyways, having more centralised plants isn't insensible at all, the rest of the infrastructure is already there. That way you control the quality yourself, are more flexible, create jobs which you control the conditions for, and don't have to end up reimporting resources from China (with a net deficit).
There are evidently ways to make it profitable, so there's no reason to make SEA get rid of your shit, nor to throw your shit into landfills. This is a clear example of being naive and thinking that throwing your issues across the ocean makes them disappear. China's policy change didn't suddenly happen out of the blue
Yet we get charged almost 2 dollars for a bottle of water
The real offense is that you actually buy bottled water.
@@questworldmatrix I won't give up on any chance to suffocate a sea turtle or baby penguin.
China as stopped taking mix-paper here too in Montreal about the same time last year
Those trash cubes remind me of Wall-E. I guess that movie was a prediction of the future, at least where America is concerned. After all, every human character was fat.
Where you able to find any EVAs ?
I say all the time that Wall-E is coming true!
@Vladimir Putin Well, capitalism is all about infinite growth beyond reason. Apparently this has now extended to their bodies.
I think it would end being like Idiocracy...if you've watch that movie
@Vladimir Putin It's 35% and Russia is right behind at 60% overweight and 20% obese and rapidly rising by the year.
*THIS IS WHY WE NEED TO PROMOTE A MINIMALIST LIFE STYLE.*
Nah
Your goverment absolutely forbid it
Even living in 27 square meters house is forbidden
Ask that to your corrupt beaurocrats
So called nation of freedom and democrazy
BWAHAHAHAHAHA
Coming from a dude trying look like....
j3fron - true to a point but they can't MAKE you buy all the shit people haul home from Walmart, Target, BestBuy...etc.
We just need a giant machine we can dump raw garbage into and a computer will separate it into its component parts for composting and recycling.
@@Thetreetroll in 2018 i don't know why we didn't figure that out
Let me get this straight: we recycle, other countries are expected to buy what we recycle. They choose not to buy the recycled squares, so we just throw our recycled squares back into the trash?
What happens to the trash? I’m rather ignorant to this
This is not about not wanting "bottom feeder businesses". For strategic reasons China is in the process of developing a highly autarchic domestic economy, self-reliant in both production and consumption. For this they must achieve higher degrees of efficiency in terms of resource management with much lower imports of all kinds, and with their own 1.4 billion people generating more than enough trash of their own, the foreign trash imports are getting in the way of their strategic aims. In the West we have not understood this.
WTF why not just recycle the garbage in the *US?*
4:10 This makes me mad
*"if we dont find a place to send it we will need to stop recycling"*
Dont you think they have already thought of that? Its much more complicated
Like it was recycling in the first place. USA doesn't recycle. USA collects garbage and then sells it to other countries to be recycled
BIG SHAQ ! Simple. USA lacks the processes and industries to efficiently recycle waste products to be made into new products profitably. In all forms of industries in America things cost a lot more to be produced of equivalent quality. It’s the cost and profitability that causes this issues. If it don’t earn it’s not good for a company so no one wants to recycle in the USA. Who would want to donate an unending amount of money to recycle? No company would only way is for the government to intervene through education and banning of one time use cutlery and plastic bags and packaging first and setting up non profit organisation with state funds to solve recycling issues because recycling cannot be profitable in USA hence only the government will be the likely organisation to do the dirty work.
We have this wonderful thing called a minimum wage in America. Soon it will be $15/hr and even more jobs will become too expensive to do here.
Well it would be way too much work to find a solution for this important issue so let's just be lazy and figure out a new way to screw our planet up!
How about this... focus on reducing the consumerism action and on how to better handle your own trash.
But that's bad for business. You know, lose lose.
you got a business man in office who prides himself off consumerism and hotel rooms. YOU'RE FUCKING JOKING RIGHT?
The bottom line is each of us as individual humans need to take responsibility for our own waste. We need to stop using single use plastic and start moving towards a Low impact lifestyle. I don't say zero waste because I feel like that's unattainable for too many people but we can all do simple things like using reuseable shopping bags, Carrying your own utensils and cups and to go Containers, opt to buy things that don't come in plastic And just in general be more conscious of what we're buying and why. We need to break this loop of consumerism otherwise our Earth and all living things in it are going to perish due to our waste. It's not that expensive to get started on a more low Impact lifestyle, You can spend $30 or even less sometimes and have all the items you need to make a difference. 😒😔
The answer should be using less plastic and more biodegradable materials again like paper, tin and recycle glass.
Take care of your own trash, reality is starting to set in.
Chinas products are trash before they get here.
@@mikechow2028 at least tega are recycling them
@@Parental92 funny how all these others are talking. clearly you dont live in the us. Stfu also your country gives china your plastics as well. So what? your better then us? even though your country is doing the same shit. Makes sense. China is the largest consumer of all recycled plastics because everything they produce is plastic garbage because half the country works in sweat shop conditions and the country allows it
@@iamvorzs we are not talking about other countries are we ? We are talking about the USA and how it tried to pile up garbage overseas.
@@Parental92 Also your name is idiotic. screaming muffin more like screaming idiot
Are these US businessmen really recyclers? In my opinion no........ They are traders.....haha.....
Those US facilities only Sort the trash. They do zero recycling
Bottom Feeders
Lol at the plastic cup on dudes desk.
When things are done to recklessness, the outcome is always messy.
i've noticed more and more lately how much we waste in America, and it's pretty insane that people are so lazy. Ordering takeout that is packaged in styrofoam, plastic and paper rather than cooking at home is huge in the U.S. Going to fast food places to order coffee/drinks that come with plastic straws, rather than just going to those same places with a reusable container. I have been drinking water from the same Nalgene for years; it's actually a hassle to buy plastic water bottles all the time rather than just getting a reusable bottle (especially when a Nalgene costs ~$10). Reusable bags is another thing people should invest in. I also take any opportunity I get to ride my bike places if I can, rather than driving; exercise is one thing, but also saving on fuel and cutting down on your carbon footprint. Also, buying fewer items, but putting time into researching them so that they last you longer can help dramatically. Such easy steps to be taken, and yet people refuse to do so because they can't be fucked to not slowly murder Earth for the sake of their convenience
The amount of packaging I I threw away every shift when I worked retail was unconscionable. The thing hanging from a peg in a plastic clamshell came covered in tissue paper, six to a box, and eight of those boxes in a bigger box. I'm not exaggerating. And you don't want to know how much styrofoam is used to pack a glass lamp when it's shipped from China to a big box store in the US.
Don't worry guys. Don't you know, Jesus is soon coming back to the USA and he is going to fix everything so you don't have to worry about that. -_-
Matthew Stinar oh i believe you, i worked at a dunkin' donuts for a couple summers while in college, and we would go through hundreds of plastic and styrofoam cups everyday with straws to match, all because people didn't want to have to bring their own cups. and that was just coffee, i can't imagine places that have to package delicate items for shipping
Exactly. In my North Texas county there are two landfills that service about 75,000 people. In the twenty years they have been operating two gigantic mountains of trash have grown within three miles of each other. They both have runoffs that feeds into the Trinity river. I have to see these mountains daily on my way to work and I'm ashamed at the amount of waste Americans produce. As I do what I can to reduce, it's futile while so many don't event give it a second thought.
You've said a mouth full! Not only do we order out, but also, we are too lazy to go out and pick the order up, thus, new companies that just deliver orders. The simple truth is our current way of life is eroding this nation economically, socially, and politically, as we watch and comment. In the grand scheme of things, all that is life, runs on effort. When you relinquish most effort for convenience, you initiate your sun set.
It’s all good, just blame everything on China
You guys have the thinnest skin possible, the video isn't even criticizing China, it merely observes that they have reduced their intake of recyclables.
If a video even mentions China a bunch of you oversensitive Chinese trolls whine about about how China is so hard done by, I guess you are just doing your job though right.
@@Tyler_0_ he isn't criticizing about the video, but americunts
@@JR-vc4gm OK, well he is still just whining about Americans, if he doesn't want American recyclables then he should complain to his government so they don't accept it. Americans are not demanding that China take it, in fact they were selling it.
@@Tyler_0_ sure, then just keep it.
@@JR-vc4gm Keep what?
Make your own recycling ♻ factories to process that goods/trash
We (America) should’ve never been shipping our trash other places in the first place. If we would’ve dealt with the problem in the beginning, it wouldn’t be this big of a problem.
In Ethiopia we drink Coca-Cola and we have to return glass bottles back.
Same here in INDIA
And Ethiopia is pristine, no trash anywhere... Nice!
felasfer3d we indonesia use that long ago.now stop doing that
Nestle and responsible... Yeh right. Nice try Nestle PR
In the Caribbean all glass bottles are returned or else you get charged 50 cents..so basically you bring an empty bottle or pay 50 cents more for your drink. The shops has to pay for the empty cases as well.
But it's the plastic that is the issue because more and more drinks comes in disposable plastic rather than glass. 😕.
A world wide plastic ban should be in effect (with some guidelines of course ) 👐peace
we should stop using plastic bottles, right now!!!
Not just bottles..think about ALL the plastic..forks and spoons, straws, plastic bags. Smdh
What about condom?
In Germany people get a little money back for bringing their bottles back, the bottles are thick and hard. This way the bottles are cleaned and refilled with little to no waste.
You guys ever seen that fully Edible clear seaweed membrane that can hold water and shit
Just put it in the White House.
...
Oh its full?
The senate then?
...
aww
In my town they charge you container and collect it twice a month for recyclables now it turns out they are simply dumping in the landfill
Its us ... We throw away tooo much !
we must reduce the use of plastics
a person on average creates 4.40 pounds of waste a year,. but this does not include your type of job or lifestyle. As an art major in college, I go through a ton of paper, I tried going to digital art to save paper waste but, I use a lot of electricity which basically to create the power supply its almost the same amount of was.
isn't life so challenging
@@Hunter-ql6hs use recycled paper or hennep paper, problem solved
I'm going to Walmart, but ...
I do not carry my shopping in plastic bags,
I do not buy bottles of water, just a water filter installed long ago to fill one half gallon plastic container for personal use,
Because I drive alone to my work, my car is a compact one,
I have 5 pairs of shoes and I feel good, it's a lot,
I have auto-Off 10-Minute bulbs in my closets and from door,
I talk a lot about the environment to my son . He hate it, but I know he is listening,
I know, I'm not doing enough for the planet, but for me this is a work in progres,
I wrote this nonsense comment, and I will do it again if I need to.🌱
Ëë Mage keep up the good work. Not a lot of people think that way. Thank you for caring about our planet.
So basically living like a standard European in the US :)
I turn of all the lights off that are not in use I recycle everything I can I try to eat everything that I have on the plate I make sure no water is wasted
@@basstion4146 Good for you ... and for all of us thanks to you.
Quite awesome to eat all the food on your plate. Actually in the United States, 25% of a food service is wasted on average. Once disposed, it creates million of tons of CO2 plus it was produced and transported before been discarded. Also, you bring the magic word: Recycle". We are not alone in this fight BASStion, there are many doing something for their children too.
You care about Nature, that's great!
Interesting it's so hard to find the numbers about these tariffs.
In Vienna in Austria we use trash to generate heat and electricity. Other European countries send us their trash. We still do separate different materials for recycling though.. not sure where that goes..
Where are the American based companies that recycle paper and plastic into usable raw product?
Catherine Williams because the raw materials are just more expensive to export.
Why import raw materials when China can just make it there fresh and cheaper?
Yeah the US can make raw materials, but what do you then do with the raw materials? Not that many industries in the states use have a use for these recycled materials anymore, unless you want to start manufacturing again and sell goods that will most likely not sell too well over seas due to the high price.
But it might do ok in the states with ‘made in America’ and using patriotism and all that
It costs too much to pay for American soil and American buildings and American workers to recycle the American waste back to raw materials. That raw plastic or paper would cost so much that products made from those materials would sell for even higher and no one wants to buy a 50$ American made notebook when they can get one for 3$ from China. We have a high cost of living due to minimum wages and everyone demanding to middle or upper class wages for their labor which is a blessing and also a curse if we want to rely on our own working class people who cost too much to hire.
Kenneth Huang Interesting thought.
T K But, how about dealing with waste in ways similar to what San Francisco deals with it's waste? That could be an economical way to deal with recyclable and non recyclable waste.
Catherine Williams i believe SF and the Bay Area still sends most of their excess recyclables abroad. But if you meant their ban on plastics and taxes on excess waste production then I think that’s a better path to weaning off a culture of disposable products. Waste issue can tackled from the front end by producing less of it and that begins with people getting rid of any materials that are non essential. Most people don’t need to carry their soda in a plastic bottle with a plastic cap inside a plastic grocery bag. Seems pretty excessive so I think SF’s experiment will yield some good results and some unforeseen bad ones to fix in their next revisions.
I think the bigger issue is how much shit we throw away and waste. We should recycle our own shit we make.
You're absolutely right
2:52 Expert talking about the trash crisis uses disposable plastic cups...in the office. This doesn't bode well...
No, actually he reuse the cups.
Someone needs to create a way to turn paper and plastic into gas ,cement etc lets get smart with this problem .
In San Francisco, less than 15% of the city's waste is actually deposited in a landfill. Their goal is less than 5%. More cities should adopt these rules and regulations.
The problem is people people soiled paper that should be in compost into recycling bins and not enough people properly cleaning plastic food containers.
Dirty recyclables make it not profitable to make use them to make other things.
That’s why China doesn’t want our waste
What?! It all gets sent abroad. To China like they said. No wonder the percentage is so low. They need to set reprocessing goals
Been to San Francisco recently. They dont need landfills because the trash is literally on the streets. Feces, needles,etc. Need a better example than that.
And you believe their number
Why India tf ?... it' got enough waste already
money
@LiquidDevil,Inc. No...just know...you westerners want tissue paper...India uses water....your media just promote stereotypes...
@LiquidDevil,Inc. Both of those assumptions are wrong
1.they use WATER
2.toilet coverage is 92℅
So....change you mind
What waste ? india is just dusty i think..
Coz u guys keep peeing on the sidewalk
Thanks for the insight Vice. Before this video, I had never even considered recyclables as a major problem for the United States.
Honestly though, some of this audience seems to be quite hostile. I’m surprised that so many people care so deeply about this issue.
Please, continue bickering amongst each other instead of finding a solution for our planet.
Geniuses.
Isn't it time that all countries process their own waste and do not export it to China and other countries?
well if USA cant handle thier own waste problems then stop calling yourself "DEVOLOPED COUNTRY". trump needs to control the waste and then he can make US great again..
Its not waste idiot its reusable materials i can tell you must be from a shitty country with low education.
@@WayneTwitch ya he's dumb probably American himself
Sure, blame everything on the sitting president. He's only one man. This stuff needs to be taken care of on the state level .
Single use container bans. Well unless they can be burned as biomass power. So only paper stuff. But charge for that. 5c for a to go box
Lmao yeah if your country has any problems at all you can't call yourself developed, sorry every country ever.
China is doing a good thing they are raising the standard and trying to do better now its our turn we need to do better.
say whatever you wanna then deal with your own trash.
Adog Supreme This wint happen until we kick out Trump
We must ban Winnie the Pooh, the sooner the better.
Buying water in plastic bottles has multiple problems, filter your own water and reuse glass, or stainless that can be washed. The bottled water thing is just wrong, and it's lazy. I'm going to use reusable grocery bags only from now on.
Instead of building a wall make a huge recycle facilities along the wall 2 bird by one stone
Or stack trash
@@12martin12rojas I vote for stack trash into a wall shape.
Maybe build your own fasilities and damage your own ecology?
I’ve lived in Canada, a few different countries in the EU and also in the US. The US is woefully inadequate in how it manages its recycling. One could argue they are over a decade behind these other nations in how these things are addressed. The days of shipping your problems off to other countries is soon over...time to modernize your systems. You’re being dragged kicking and screaming into this century and it’s about time.
exactly
I have only noticed one new recycling facility built with in my life time in the two metropolitan cities I've lived in
What we need is power plants that run on undesirable material that can't be recycled. with appropriate scrubbing of the exhaust of course.
How about inside materials for building materials?
Isn't it our own problem and not China's to begin with
When you can generate trash..... Why not learn to recycle them.....
Same reason you've ever thrown out anything.
You have no use for it. I mean, why dont you use your chip bags as storage bags? Why not compost food waste? Why not recycle your oils or anything?
Oh because its not worth it for you or you dont care? Huh... Keep on point fingers at others though, I mean why dont you learn to recycle?
Send it into space, to that one planet that Thor and Loki went to.
People the only solution is stopping the use of plastic as much as you can, and be mindful of what you buy
I can't say I blame them. The recyclable wastes has too much dirt in it. I was watching a documentary on Japan and their waste is sorted so well by the citizens before dumping them. Very clean and easy to recycle. The recyclables in this video have too many different substances mixed up. They should be better sorted up before sending them to the dumpster.
A lot of East Asian countries had been practicing recycling decades ago. My country Taiwan had been doing this since I was in elementary school(I'm 28 now), it's time US start educating people to recycle. Now the new things are electronics wastes, there are companies out there doing that in Taiwan, and they are able to get Gold ingot and stuff from electronics, linus tech tip did a episode on that
Recycling waste is also something that has been around for decades in europe. This is one of many things in which the US is quite backwards. There was a study that said that if every human on earth lived like the people in the US, we would need 4.1 earths to sustain that way of life.
How about American should invest in it and not in invading sovereign countries
RatherA you cant make that much on recycling. Invading sovereign countries seems like a better deal
if you don't buy it they won't profit by legislating away the real cost on our world. Look at Pepsico,the American Bottling Asspociation...etc.. They spend more money on paying congress to look the other way than they do cleaning up all their trash once the trash has been consumed by the victims...uh..customers...We lose twice,they leave the ditches full of trash,and they walk away rich...with teeth,and intact pancreases...
This is very interesting to see. Eye opening.