A flood of non-recyclable packaging, coupled with market disruptions overseas, threatens the sustainability of municipal recycling programs and environmental benefits.
Ogunquit recently had to cut back on recycling services after China -- once the largest buyer of America’s waste -- stopped taking most recyclables, leaving many American communities in the lurch.John Fusco, transfer station manager in Ogunquit, Maine, says market disruptions in recent years forced the city to make painful cutbacks to its recycling program.
More than 82 million tons of solid waste produced in the U.S. is from containers and packaging, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Roughly half of that is recycled; the rest is sent to landfills or burned.Cities rely on the sale of recyclable materials to domestic and international manufacturers to help offset the cost of collecting and disposing of household and commercial waste.
MORE: We’re recycling but garbage keeps piling up: What you may not know about the recycling industry "I like to call it recycling reform," Grohowski told ABC News in an interview outside the state capitol in Augusta."It makes the producers of packaging waste responsible for what happens to that waste at the end of its lifespan."Maine state representative Nicole Grohowski sponsored a new state law that requires manufacturers to take financial responsibility for the packaging they create.
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