This is bad news

[terracore]

Unfortunately, with the exception of some metals and in some areas cardboard and paper, all the 'recycling' programs have been ponzi schemes to make people feel better about themselves and ship our waste several thousands miles away. And make a bunch of people rich conducting one of the biggest scams ever conceived. At the end of the day it's cheaper to make new stuff than recycle old stuff. For whatever reason China and other countries have decided they aren't going to be the West's landfills any more. They were never recycling most of our waste they were at best stacking it up and at worst dumping it into the oceans. They probably stopped accepting our waste because the financial cost on their fisheries exceeded what they could earn by pretending to recycle it.

The president of the Philippines vowed to "Declare War" on Canada if they didn't remove the trash they sent to his country ( https://thehill.com/policy/international...-canada-if ) I pretty much did this paragraph to show this isn't just a USA / China problem.

In my great grandparent's days the women used to recycle the animal feed bags into clothing. When the feed companies caught on they started making the feed bags in different dress patterns that changed over time so they could have some variety in their wardrobe. The recycling was done by the end consumer, much like Kalakoa's bucket comment suggested.

Once you get government and private company corruption involved into something, the results are never good.