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China recycling restrictions continue to burden local recycling centers

Posted: 4:40 AM, Aug 21, 2018
Updated: 2018-08-21 13:57:59-04

After China stopped buying certain recyclable items from the United States at the start of the year, recycling centers all across the country have been doing what they can to avoid pile up. 

Recycling centers like the ones in Tucson have been forced to look for other market in other countries willing to buy the items China no longer takes. 

Some of the items China no longer buys are among the ones the U.S. brings in recycling centers most often like newspapers, cardboard items, and a lot of plastics. 

To ensure those items don't pile up at recycling center, officials say they've had to find other buying alternatives. 

"What we've had to do in light of China's decision to not accept material that historically they had is find other markets. Find other domestic markets, find other buyers internationally that previously we had not shipped to because China was our primary buyer of these recyclable materials," said Jake Anderson, the general manager of Republic Services facilities in Tucson.