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Recycling

Poor recycling practices mean more is getting landfilled

by Jed Kim
Aug 3, 2018
China used to be a dumping ground for waste, but new policies have closed off the major market.
Workers sort contaminated and recyclable materials at the Puente Hills Materials Recovery Facility. 
Jed Kim/Marketplace
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For scrap brokers, the trade war is not "on hold"

by Kai Ryssdal and Maria Hollenhorst
May 21, 2018
One broker says he'll have to do "a lot of juggling" if China won' import U.S. scrap.
Scrap metal to be used in steel production is piled at the Zhong Tian (Zenith) Steel Group Corp. in 2016 in Changzhou, Jiangsu.
Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
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U.S. scrap exports to China just came to a screeching halt

by Kai Ryssdal and Maria Hollenhorst
May 11, 2018
One expert says the monthlong suspension could impact an estimated $400 million worth of trade.
A Chinese laborer sorts plastic bottles for recycling in Dong Xiao Kou village on the outskirts of Beijing.
FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images
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Entrepreneurs starting to see opportunities in other people's food scraps

by Britta Greene
Feb 12, 2018
The Environmental Protection Agency is looking to keep food waste out of landfills. One entrepreneur in rural New Hampshire is pinning her business to that goal.
Jessica Saturley-Hall, founder of the Upper Valley Compost Company, picks up a bucket full of food scraps in Grantham, New Hampshire. 
Britta Greene/Marketplace
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China wants nothing to do with America's trash

by Kai Ryssdal and Shaheen Ainpour
Oct 17, 2017
It will no longer import recycled scrap from the U.S. So what do we do with it?
Scrap metal in Long Beach, California, waits to be shipped to Asia for recycling.
JOE KLAMAR/AFP/GettyImages
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Carting New Yorkers' trash to landfills is expensive. One solution: Make less of it.

by Ashley Milne-Tyte
Aug 4, 2017
A city plan to increase recycling and food composting is in the works.
One idea to get more people recycling in New York is to give them bags with a bar code on it that would attribute the load to a particular apartment. Above, bags of recycling are piled on a Manhattan street.
Spencer Platt / Getty Images
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Baby boomer entrepreneurs hope co-op model will keep business going

by Sam Harnett
May 3, 2017
Almost half of the country's privately-owned businesses are owned by Baby Boomers. What happens when they retire?
For 36 years Dan Knapp and Mary Lou Deventer have made money out of other peoples' trash.
Sam Harnett
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The economics of mattress recycling: the spring's the thing

by Marketplace Contributor
Nov 29, 2016
Millions of mattresses are thrown out each year, creating an expensive challenge for waste managers.
Mattresses piled on the warehouse floor at Goodwill Industries in Duluth, Minnesota. Ultimately, as part of the recycling process, each of these mattresses will be deconstructed and separated into component parts.
Britta Greene
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Creating jobs in Compton by keeping old tires out of the landfill

by Kai Ryssdal
Aug 9, 2016
RCO is a green business, but it's also a company that doesn't shy away from employees who've made mistakes in their pasts.
At RCO Tires in Compton, workers ready tire treads for recycling and 'upcycling'
Robert Garrova/Marketplace
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One victim of falling oil prices? Recycling

by Raghu Manavalan
Sep 4, 2015
It's now cheaper to make new plastic than to recycle the old.
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