Impact of the China Sword Policy
Before January of 2018, the United States exported a significant portion of its plastic recyclables abroad to China, Indonesia, and other countries who would in turn use this in their own manufacturing. In January 2018, China- the largest importer of baled recycled plastic, enacted a “National Sword” Policy which limited the amount of acceptable contamination in these shipments of recycled plastic to almost 0%. With this impossible standard, the United States was no longer able to export the plastics that everyday Americans placed in their recycling containers daily. But everyday Americans were not informed of these changes, and have largely continued recycling the same items in the same way as before the policy was enacted. Below are a few articles describing the impact this policy has on everyday Americans.
WSJ: States Look for New Ways to Recycle Your Plastic and Paper
No One Told Me! 