COVENTRY — Some 1,300 pounds of plastic were collected during an event in Coventry this weekend, saving what would otherwise have wound up in the Central Landfill so that it
click to flip through (3) Shutterstock Bags and bags filled with recyclables were piling up in Kathy Hutchinson’s shed. She had been waiting for the Eureka Recycling Center to resume paying for California Refund Value bottles and cans after it closed in March due to COVID-19 restrictions, but the eagerly anticipated reopening was short lived. The center briefly resumed its CRV redemption services last September but an overwhelming demand caused traffic congestion and hazards on Broadway, which caused Humboldt Waste Management Authority to discontinue the service, which wasn t penciling out financially anyway. In 2010, Humboldt County had a total of 10 CRV redemption centers but at the beginning of last year only five remained. Now there are none, as centers in Fortuna, McKinleyville and Redway all closed their CRV programs in 2020, which partially led to the flood of demand that prompted the Eureka Recycling
Who Pays the Bill for Plastic Waste?
China’s 2018 National Sword Policy ended the country’s role as the recycling bin for the world’s post-consumer plastic scrap and threw global recycling markets into disarray. Reeling on the other side of the globe, American cities were forced to store, incinerate, or throw collected recyclables into landfills. Faced with a rapidly diminishing landfill capacity, China is consolidating and formalizing its domestic recycling industry, an expensive and daunting task.
Cities around the world are struggling with the costs and logistics of collecting and sorting their plastic waste. Less than 15 percent of plastic produced worldwide is actually recycled, due in part to low oil prices that make virgin plastic much cheaper than recycled pellets. The Pew Charitable TrustsBreaking the Plastic Wave report estimates that without decreases in plastic production and increases in recycling, by 2040 plastic pollution entering the ocean will triple from 11