China’s Recycling Industry Tanks: “Even Trash Has Become Worthless”

The global recession has hit China’s once-booming recycling industry. From the New York Times:

“American and European waste dealers who sell to China are finding that their shipments are being refused by clients when they arrive in Asia.

The ultimate victim may be the environment, already overrun with enough trash in places to threaten people’s health, now further burdened with refuse that until recently would have been recycled.

… The drop in commodity prices was so rapid that in a matter of weeks last fall container ships carrying used railroad wheels and empty dog food cans arrived in Chinese ports worth far less than they had been when they departed Newark, Rotterdam or Los Angeles.”

The full article’s here; it comes with a slideshow.