PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY — U.S. officials were taken by surprise when China announced this year that it will no longer accept most plastics for recycling.
Prince William County and Manassas residents were equally confounded.
“After starting my own family and having kids, my concern for recycling has grown. If China no longer takes and processes our plastic, I’m not sure where it will all go, and I’m concerned it will end up in the water,” Kim Gutman, a Manassas resident, said over Facebook.
Kathryn Nagurny, a Prince William County resident, also said over Facebook, “Thrown away plastic is not gone- it has to go somewhere. But where and what now since China has decided to stop processing our plastic?”
For years, the country had been taking in the U.S.’s unwanted plastic by the boatload. But now, according to The Washington Post, China’s ban was motivated by the fact that the market value of accepting cheap plastic goods such as water bottles is too low – they are just not worth that much to re-sell.
This ban has led to countries worrying about what to do with the plastic that they had historically relied on China to take.
The ramifications of China’s decisions are now being felt at the Prince William County Landfill. When a local recycling company has to reject items due to contamination or because the manufacturer they used to send them to won’t accept them now, they end up in the landfill.
“Since China was such a large purchaser of material for recycling and the country has now put lots of restrictions on the material they will take, nationally, material recovery facilities [MRFs] are finding it harder to meet the stricter contamination standards now required by China,” Deborah Campbell, a spokeswoman at the Prince William County Solid Waste Division, stated in an email.
And that plastic — it’s piling up in Prince Wiliam.
“We are seeing a minimum of an 18% increase in residue [from MRFs] this fiscal year.” When asked if this was due to the China ban, Scott said, “It’s one possibility. It’s just a concern. We are watching it,” said Scott MacDonald, Recycling Program Manager for Prince William County.
McDonald emphasized the need for proper recycling techniques and mentioned that he once saw a dirty baby diaper among the items that would need to be rejected at a recycling center.
Campbell echoed the need for proper recycling, saying that when the contents of local trash trucks were examined, roughly 70% of the items were things that could have been recycled or composted.
At the American Recycling Center in Manassas, where the city sends its refuse, plastics have always been a problem.
“We have to shut down the recycling center three to four times a day. Workers have to get into the rollers and cut out plastic bags,” said Nancy Hessler-Spruill, an American Disposal Service spokeswoman.
She adds residents need to be aware of proper recycling, such as that grocery bags do not go in curbside recycling bins. There are collection places for plastic bags, such as in grocery stores, where you can drop off your used grocery bags.
Local Facebook groups like TBYT: Think Before You Throw help guide people in the how to’s of proper recycling.
While plastics are a problem for the recycling industry, don’t stop recycling them.
“Prince William County should ‘Stay calm and recycle on.’ Stick to basics like plastic water and soda bottles, milk jugs, liquid laundry detergent [bottles]… office paper, newspaper, cardboard, paper core/rolls, cereal, and cracker type boxes and metal food and beverage cans;” Campbell wrote.
The Prince William County Solid Waste Division will hold its annual Prince William Recycles Day event at the Prince William Landfill on Saturday, October 13. This is a fun and free way for residents to learn more about recycling and environmental issues. They will give landfill tours, provide food, games, and music.
