Trash day again. Recycling trucks chug along, picking up all the bins. Then the paper, plastic, and aluminum we’ve discarded can be made into new products. But have you ever thought about where that happens? In the United States and much of the world, companies collect and sort recyclables, but do not also repurpose them. They sell the sorted items to other companies that use them to create new products. For decades, companies in China bought most of the world’s recycling.
That ended in 2018, when the whole system came crashing down.
The Way It Was
In 1995, Chinese entrepreneur Zhang Yin opened a recycled paper business. She thought she could make money by buying waste paper from around the world and turning it into new products. She was right, and her business made her China’s first female billionaire. Other Chinese companies quickly followed her lead, opening facilities to process all kinds of recyclables. Other factories in China used some of this material to produce new items. The world’s thrown-away plastic, paper, and cardboard became new toys, electronic parts, and home goods.
It was a system that seemed to work well for everyone. China sent shipping containers of new goods to the US. Unloading the new products left containers empty and available to fill up with recyclables and ship back to China. By 2016, the US was exporting nearly 700,000 tons of plastic waste per year to China. That’s the weight of more than 25,000 full garbage trucks. And the US wasn’t the only country looking to get rid of recyclables. Chinese companies bought nearly 70 percent of the world’s plastic waste. It all added up to about 7 million tons of plastic, or the weight of over 270,000 loaded garbage trucks. Picture an enormous parking lot with every space filled.
So What Happened???
Denne historien er fra September 2019-utgaven av Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
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Denne historien er fra September 2019-utgaven av Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Who's Your Cousin?
The great apes are among the most popular animals in most zoos. Their actions, facial expressions, and family life remind us so much of ourselves. Have you ever wondered, though, how we might look to them?
Is it possible to die of boredom?
To figure out if we can die of boredom, we first have to understand what boredom is. For help, we called James Danckert, a psychologist who studies boredom at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
THE PROBLEM WITH PALM OIL
Palm oil is all around you. It’s in sugary snacks like cookies and candy bars. It’s in lipstick and shampoo and pet food.
SERGE WICH
Serge Wich’s favorite days at work are spent out in the forest, studying orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo or chimpanzees in Tanzania.
ELODIE FREYMANN
When you’re feeling sick, it probably doesn’t occur to you to try eating tree bark.
Guardians of the Forest
EARLY, MAKESHIFT WILDLIFE DRONES HELPED TO DETECT AND PROTECT ORANGUTANS.
APE ANTICS
The Whirling World of primate play
Dr. Ape Will See You Now
HUMANS AREN’T THE ONLY PRIMATES THAT USE MEDICATION.
THE LEFT OVERS
A lot has happened for modern humans to get to this point. We lost most of our hair, learned how to make tools, established civilizations, sent a person to the Moon, and invented artificial intelligence. Whew! With all of these changes, our bodies have changed, too. It’s only taken us about six million years.
SO, WHAT IS A PRIMATE?
What do you have in common with the aye-aye, sifaka, siamang, and potto? If you said your collarbone, you re probably a primatologist—a person who studies primates. If you’re not, read on.
