China gets tough on US recyclables. How one Maine town is fighting back.
| Sanford and Portland, Maine
At the peak of the recycling crisis here, Kayla LeBrun听almost pressed the panic button that summons the police. As the administrative assistant at the Sanford Public Works Department, she was on the front lines of an ugly battle 鈥� one that had been triggered half a world away.
Residents stormed into the office and set her phone ringing off the hook. They demanded to know, in language that can鈥檛 be printed here, why the city鈥檚 recycling service was suddenly refusing to pick up things they鈥檇 always collected 鈥撎齦ike plastic grocery bags.
In short, the answer was that China 鈥� the No. 1 destination for US recyclables 鈥� had cracked down on imports of 鈥渞ecycling鈥� that was laced with trash, and had even stopped taking certain materials altogether. That had driven up the cost of business for US recycling facilities, which in turn started charging municipalities for banned items mixed in with recycling. Sanford, seeking to avoid $100,000 in unexpected fees, abruptly ramped up enforcement of its recycling rules.
Why We Wrote This
Beijing鈥檚 2018 crackdown on recyclables was widely decried as a disaster for global recycling. Facing rising recycling costs, cities like Sanford, Maine, have found innovative ways to respond.
That didn鈥檛 go over well with many of the city鈥檚 21,000 residents, who pay the in York County despite the fact that their听household incomes are听 the county average. And on top of that, they pay for each bag of garbage they put out on the curb. So when recycling trucks refused to pick up their recycle bins because of violations, that meant a more expensive trash bill.
鈥淲ell, I鈥檒l just throw it in the street,鈥� screamed one lady who had stuffed her recyclables into a 50-pound nonrecyclable dog food bag. Other angry residents stood in front of the recycling trucks and refused to move; one individual even threw a paint can at a truck driver, injuring her.
The company that collects Sanford鈥檚 recycling, Casella, was spending as much as two extra hours a day, at a rate of $140 per truck per hour, examining recyclables and leaving orange warning tags for offenders.
But both they and the city held firm. Within just a few weeks, Sanford鈥檚 contamination rates 鈥撎齮he percent of trash mixed in with recyclables 鈥撎齞ropped from 15 to 20 percent to 0 to 3 percent.
At a time when many American cities and towns face steep costs for their recycling programs, leading some to dump their recyclables in landfills or stop collecting them altogether, Sanford鈥檚 example offers an alternative path forward. It shows how, at a time when developing countries such as China are raising their environmental standards, the United States can take greater responsibility for the waste it produces.
鈥淭he disruption to American recycling markets is in the long term going to be good for the United States from an economic and environmental perspective,鈥� says David Biderman, chief executive of the听Solid Waste Association of North America, who says the reduced dependence on a foreign market will boost jobs in the US while also spurring innovation at home. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 reinvigorated a discussion about reducing waste in the first place.鈥�
Why Sanford didn鈥檛 play the blame game
America鈥檚 recycling rates have听more than听, to听nearly 35 percent of total waste produced.
Yet that track record is marred by 鈥渨ishcycling鈥� 鈥� people putting everything from lobster shells to Christmas lights into their recycle bins. In just a few weeks this summer, Sanford residents tried to recycle a hair dryer, coffee grounds, diapers, a dog run chain, stuffed animals, pool toys, blinds, a car mat, a vacuum cleaner, and a cooler.
鈥淭hey need to get rid of this thing, and here鈥檚 a bin that gets picked up every week, so why not give it a shot?鈥� says Matt Hill, director of the Public Works听Department in Sanford.
So long as China was taking America鈥檚 recyclables, no one much minded. But when Beijing implemented its 鈥淣ational Sword鈥� policy in early 2018, everyone suddenly cared a lot more.
One day this summer, Ms. LeBrun听opened a shocking bill from ecomaine, the Portland-based company that processes Sanford鈥檚 recycling. The company, facing a 50 percent drop in revenues as the new Chinese policies created a glut of recyclables in the US, was charging municipalities for exceeding the certain contamination rates. In just 15 days, Sanford had racked up thousands of dollars in fees.
LeBrun immediately brought the bill to Mr. Hill, who calculated that at this rate, it would cost the city about $100,000 in fees a year. He听started flipping through the city鈥檚 contract with ecomaine.
鈥淭here was the opportunity to point the finger at ecomaine,鈥� he says, but the city decided instead to work with ecomaine and Casella to address the underlying problem. 鈥淭he problem is not ecomaine enforcing. The problem is not China rejecting contamination. The problem is that people are just not paying attention to what we do with our waste.鈥�
Beyond the curb
From the giant bay at ecomaine where Casella and other trucks dump their loads, it takes just 3.5 minutes for recyclables to be whizzed along a conveyor belt through a series of sorting areas, which include everything from workers picking out particular kinds of materials to high-tech optical sensors that trigger bursts of compressed air under certain items in order to separate them into a different channel. The workers and whirring machines process as much as 18 tons an hour, making it difficult to achieve China鈥檚 ultra-low contamination rates of 0.5 to 1.5 percent, depending on the material.
鈥淲e can clean up the load, but we鈥檙e doing it by hand,鈥� says ecomaine chief executive Kevin Roche. 鈥淣one of the automation is helping with contamination 鈥� that鈥檚 all manual.鈥�
The day the Monitor visited ecomaine, the facility had just sent a shipment of paper to a mill in West Virginia under new ownership 鈥嬧�� from China.
In effect, US subsidiaries of Chinese firms are becoming part of the solution to US recycling challenges. Faced with the Beijing-imposed decline in imported recyclables, some of them are seeking to rebuild their profits by expanding into US markets.
A subsidiary of Chinese firm Nine Dragons Paper, ND Paper LLC had bought the mill this fall for $62 million in cash. The company, which was only formed this year, is one of at least several China-linked outfits that have set up shop in the US after Beijing鈥檚 shift, says Brian Boland, vice president of government affairs and corporate initiatives at ND Paper.
Some 60 percent of American recycling consists of paper, and until 2018 China took more than half of that paper. That created a whole subset of companies in China that used that material to make recycled paper products. So, when starved of their core material, some have started buying up paper mills in the US, including ones that had been shuttered.
ND Paper is听in the process of hiring 130 people听to reopen a mill in Old Town, Maine,听says Mr. Boland. The company has also announced it will invest in a new recycling operation at its plant in Rumford, Maine, next year, giving facilities like ecomaine a destination far closer, and cheaper, than China or even West Virginia.
鈥淩eally, the Rumford mill is our biggest hope,鈥� says Mr. Roche, the ecomaine executive.
A model for other communities
Such stateside solutions make a lot of sense to Hill of Sanford鈥檚 Public Works.
鈥淚f China can do all this with the recycled material, why aren鈥檛 we doing it?鈥� he says, citing the cost of transporting a mounting volume of recyclables halfway around the world to be turned into recycled materials. 鈥淲hy does it have to go over there and then come back here? Why can鈥檛 it just be done here?鈥�
Sanford, Casella, and ecomaine鈥檚 partnership shows that it can be.
鈥淚t definitely could be replicated across the country,鈥� says Kenneth Blow, who oversees Casella鈥檚 operations in Sanford and beyond, and says a number of towns have dramatically reduced their contamination rates. 鈥淎ll the municipalities have worked very well with us鈥�. It was a lot of work, a little bit of a struggle, but it鈥檚 been successful.鈥�
