Friday, April 3, 2009

Made in the USA

If you are reading this post than I am sure you are aware that the recycling market is experiencing a major funk. Municipalities are loosing their "shirts" on recycling the same items they were making record revenues on just a year ago. The quality and the amount of the recyclables are not to blame for the slump. The demand for actual recyclables across the world is the culprit. The problem is directly related to our countries economic downturn, drastic declines in consumer spending and therefor our decrease demand for foreign goods coming from China. China is the biggest user/buyer of our recyclables. Surprised. Our biggest export is our discarded paper to China. The richest women in China is the head of a recycling company, so you can imagine how much that company relies on our demand for what those recyclables are made into. As a country of consumers who are not consuming, it does not take long for the chain reaction of demand for our recyclables in China to dry up. When demand for their goods decreases, fewer recyclables are being bought by their factories. That is where we are today.
As people in the US are out of work and looking for jobs, could their garbage and recyclables be their best bet for strengthening their local economies? Absolutely.
We need to invest as a country in local markets and demand for our recyclables A single plastic bottle or recycled piece of paper can travel all the way around the world before coming back in the form of a new product due to our reliance on foreign manufacturing. I know that the best way forward for everyone is a global economy where we buy and sell goods and services across the globe. What I propose is each country initiates a pact to incorporate recyclables into their countries economies. This not only is a 'green" thing to do but will create a lot of jobs and local revenue when you local recycling center has local buyers who are the end users of the recyclables. This investment in a locale recycling infrastructures would not eliminate the global sales and shipping of recyclables but would significantly curb the stockpiling of recyclables due to the fact our limited manufacturing industry in the USA has not Incorporated our recyclables into the ingredients of the products and goods we are manufacturing currently.

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