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What was the name of China's policy that banned the import of most plastic and other materials for recycling?
National Sword
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When was China’s National Sword policy enacted?
January 2018
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What percentage of plastics collected for recycling in the European Union were sold and shipped to China before the ban?
95 percent
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Which city stopped accepting black plastics?
Minneapolis
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What percentage of disposed plastics were being recycled before China's import ban?
9 percent
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What are local governments and recycling processors across the United States hurrying to find?
New markets
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Which region is primarily trying to handle plastic waste due to China’s ban?
Southeast Asia
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What do experts say could be an advantage of the recycling crisis triggered by China’s ban?
It could lead to better solutions for managing the world’s waste.
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What happened to the rest of the discarded plastics that were not recycled or burned?
They were buried in landfills or simply dumped and left to wash into rivers and oceans.
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Which two materials are less affected by the ban on imports?
Recycled aluminum and glass
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What type of materials were overwhelming Chinese recycling facilities, prompting the ban?
Soiled and contaminated materials
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What did experts warn would be exacerbated by China’s ban and our throwaway culture?
The already massive waste problem
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Which country is currently facing a recycling crisis with a 1.3 million-ton accumulation of recyclable waste?
Australia
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What percentage of plastics collected for recycling in the U.S. were sold and shipped to China prior to the ban?
70 percent
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What other recyclable material, besides plastics, saw a drop by a third in imports by China?
Mixed paper
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What made the practice of accepting plastic waste from other countries profitable for China, before the ban?
China had favourable rates for shipping in cargo vessels, low labor costs and a high demand for recycled materials.
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Name one of the U.S. places that have reduced or stopped their recycling programs due to the ban?
Communities from Douglas County, Oregon to Hancock, Maine
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What is causing the practice of recycling to become uneconomic?
Rising costs to haul away recyclable materials.
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What are some residents in areas where recycling programs have been halted doing with their plastic and paper?
They are tossing plastic and paper into the trash.
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By how much did China's imports of plastics drop following the National Sword policy?
99 percent
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What evidence has been observed in countries that are dependent on exporting plastic waste since the ban?
The accumulation of plastic waste.
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Which city switched to burning its recyclables at a waste-to-energy plant? and what concerns did this raise?
Philadelphia, air pollution
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What percentage of discarded plastics were burned prior to China’s ban?
12 percent
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What is the estimated amount of plastic waste that will need to be processed or disposed of in the next 10 years as a result of China’s ban?
111 million tons
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How much nearly nonbreakable plastics have been produced worldwide over the past 60 years?
More than 8 billion tons
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