Curbside garbage and recycling pickup tends to seem a bit magical, with waste removed and sent away without most consumers ever seeing where it goes. But many U.S. cities are struggling with an overload of recyclables and may soon change their pickup programs, if they haven’t already. The reason behind that big shift has to do with pollution in China and how the global recycling market disproportionately impacts other nations that buy imported paper and plastic refuse and recyclables.

For nearly two decades, China has taken in extraordinary quantities of the world’s trash and relied on cheap labor to process it. More specifically, China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, at which point the country began accepting paper and plastic recycling from around the world, according to a February episode of the podcast 99 Percent Invisible. And according to a new report from Vox, by 2016, China was importing 40 million metric tons of recyclable products every year.

Then in 2018, due to vast pollution issues, China put an end to the practice of importing so much junk, a ban on foreign recyclables the media sometimes called “National Sword.”

The U.S. used to make a fair bit of money from selling off its trash and recyclable goods. But the real issue is what the country will do now, with its recyclable products piling up. There is no national recycling policy in the U.S., which means cities are without a plan to work together to manage domestic waste.

As a result, hundreds of cities nationwide have begun scaling back or altogether scrapping with their recycling programs. Trade publication WasteDive maintains a comprehensive tracker of exactly how this policy impacts each of the 50 U.S. states. Its examples cross cities of all size and demographic and illustrate the breadth of the problem.

One WasteDive example includes the more than 30,000 recycling customers of Republic Services in Indianapolis seeing their bills double in 2018, up to the maximum amount allowable by law. Meanwhile in states such as Wyoming, cities and counties are stockpiling recyclable materials until market conditions improve.

All of this is leading to even more extreme, longer-term effects. Vox points to an alarming study published in the journal Science Advances that says China’s ban on imported recyclables will lead to a pileup of garbage by the year 2030.

路边的垃圾桶和回收垃圾车其实挺神奇，大多数消费者还没有注意到，垃圾就已经被清理并送走了。可是，许多美国城市正陷入超负荷处理可回收垃圾的困境，可能很快就要调整垃圾回收方式，有些已经开始行动。这一重大转变背后的原因是中国面临严重污染，以及全球垃圾回收市场如何严重影响其他购买进口废纸、塑料废弃物及可回收品的国家。

近20年里，中国吸收了全球海量的垃圾，然后靠廉价劳动力处理。今年2月，由旧金山公共广播电台KALW和美国建筑师协会驻旧金山分会联合成立的独立广播99 Percent Invisible的一期节目介绍，具体来说，中国在2001年加入世界贸易组织（WTO）时开始接收全世界的废纸和可回收塑料。新媒体网站Vox的新近报道称，截至2016年，中国每年进口可回收制品4000万公吨。

2018年，由于污染严重，中国叫停进口国外可回收废物，一些媒体称之为“亮剑”行动。

过去，美国通过对外出售垃圾和可回收物品获得了不少收入，而眼下的问题是，垃圾越积越多，未来如何解决。美国没有全国性的废品回收政策，意味着各城市并没有管理垃圾方面的联合行动计划。

因此，美国的数百个城市开始收缩或者彻底废除废品回收项目。行业期刊《WasteDive》推出了一个指数，持续追踪政策调整对美国50个州有何影响。取样遍布大中小城市和各类人群，能充分看出该问题的影响范围。

在《WasteDive》的追踪对象当中，印第安纳州的废料处理公司Republic Services便是一例，其客户超过3万名，去年账单金额翻了一倍，达到了法律规定的最高水平。与此同时，怀俄明等州的一些城市和县还在堆积可回收废品，等待市场环境好转。

各种应对方式导致政策的影响更为剧烈也更持久。Vox引用美国科学促进会旗下期刊《Science Advances》发布的一项研究称，由于中国的进口废品禁令，到2030年，垃圾的累积将是一个天文数字。（财富中文网）

译者：冯丰

审校：夏林