• yggstyle@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    2 months ago

    Didn’t this all start falling apart when China stopped buying our trash? It’s been a minute since I read up on this…

    • stevedidwhat_infosec@infosec.pub
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      2 months ago

      Not sure honestly what the cause is (I doubt there’s a singular explanation, nothings black and white like that ever)

      I do know there are some common problems with contamination, costs (China might’ve grabbed this opportunity), market demand for whatever the output of the recycling operation is fluctuating, logistics, and I’m gonna argue that there’s not really much legislation to push for this.

      The good news is they recently were able to make graphene with plastics (very high demand, tough to produce) which could be huge for civ as a whole. Things like space elevators are more plausible with advances like these