
How Texas Can Help End America’s Trash Imports
Believe it or not, U.S. companies are spending money to import garbage. American firms have paid to bring in loads of waste – plastic bottles, aluminum cans and other recyclables – from countries like China and Mexico. They do this not for human trash, but to meet domestic demand for recycled content. Texas A&M researchers call this a “paradox of inefficiency.” With inadequate recycling and processing here, manufacturers still must get recycled plastics and metals from abroad, even while millions of tons of trash accumulate in our own state. The Mosbacher Institute at Texas A&M has proposed a solution: dramatically boost Texas’s recycling programs so that “people directly engage” in waste reduction. In other words, stop treating trash as a foreign resource and start processing it at home....
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