JerryBellune@yahoo.com

Lexington County’s waste recycling system has overcome many problems experienced elsewhere.

When China reduced the amount of waste it accepted for recycling, prices for recyclables plummeted.

Many US counties suspended parts of their recycling. Not here.

Lexington County Council spokesman Harrison Cahill reported the county is still recycling at the landfill.

How long that will last no one seems to know.

Many counties have done well because they never relied on China to repurpose their plastics and paper.

The county was not affected as other areas were when China restricted imported recyclables in 2018.

“This offers a brighter future for recycling,” said David Biderman, executive director of the Solid Waste Association of North America.

In 2017, the US exported about 14 million metric tons of scrap recyclables to China, according to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, a trade group.

A year later, after China enacted new standards, that number dropped to around 9.1 million metric tons.

Prices dropped as materials flooded the domestic market and many counties struggled to respond.

Officials in Lexington, Ky., suspended paper recycling.

“We couldn’t even give our paper away,” said spokes person Angela Poe.

Some lawmakers and recyclers aim to become less reliant on recycling and instead reduce and reuse waste materials.

“We see local governments and others be innovative,” Biderman said.

He said the more successful recycling programs sort and organize waste with machinery and send it to domestic buyers who turn it into new products.

Mixed paper is the most common recyclable.

It’s bundled and sent to paper mills where it is shredded, mixed with water and pressed into cardboard.

Plastics are turned into containers and gardening tools among other things.