Columnist LATstevelopez took the contents of his blue bin to the recycling center. Here’s what he learned:
, was about recyclable materials piling up in the United States, due in large part to lower prices and demand from China, which for years was the major purchaser of our waste.The market for our discards is down, but we’re producing more of it than ever, said Enrique Zaldivar, the Sanitation Department’s general manager.
But there’s something we all need to consider about our own role in the current crisis. Our instant gratification needs lead to more shipping from Amazon and other suppliers, and conservation is not part of the equation. You can order a pair of toenail clippers that lands on your doorstep in two or three boxes big enough to fit a small child inside, along with bubble wrap and maybe some package strapping.
Mark Murray of Californians Against Waste said plastic packaging is made from natural gas and petroleum products, and because the price of oil is low, it’s cheaper to mass-produce that stuff. If you’ve gone shopping lately, you know that you need a chain saw and possibly some small explosives to extract a pair of garden shears or a set of headphones from all the shrink wrap and flesh-carving molded plastic.
“It’s dumped in estuaries and rivers and ultimately ends up floating into bays and oceans as plastic pollution, and a goodly amount of it is ours,” said Murray.
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