Made in China. Recycled in China.

You may be surprised to learn that a lot of the recyclables that we accumulate are being shipped [and sold] overseas and then being resold back here in North America as other products.

According to an article on Tree Hugger, Canada ships a lot of its recyclable waste overseas to China where it is dealt with, repurposed into goods that are shipped back to Canada and sold again. Here, our blue boxes are sorted by low paid, factory workers, then recycled into anything possible, and sold back to Vancouver, for us to once again fill our blue boxes with. All in all, Canada did make between $600,000 and $800,000 over the last two years, but also suffered the wrath of a large carbon footprint caused by the trucks, freightliners, and trains used to transport the materials.

“Toronto’s Solid Waste Department acknowledges that in the long term shipping waste around the world is not sustainable and hopes that eventually local paper mills and recycling facilities will be able to keep the materials local.”

So some speculate that our recyclables are being broken down and reused, others report that the recyclables are shipped overseas only to be put in a landfill (see earlier post “Where does all our recycling go?”). Trashbusters continue to investigate.

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