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The financial impact of China’s recycling crackdown hit Edmonton much harder than predicted.

In 2018, China cracked down on Western countries shipping bales of poorly sorted recyclables — junk plastic that was melted down and sometimes burned or thrown in waterways from family-run, poorly-regulated recycling shops.

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Their crack-down spread to other Asian countries. It changed the global market. Now low-quality plastics and dirty, poorly-sorted paper are nearly impossible to off-load.

It was good news for the Earth; bad news for Edmonton’s budget.

Last year, officials estimated the recycling budget would take a $1 million hit. That was actually $3.5 million, and despite the increased cost, Edmonton recycled less material. It sent 15,640 tonnes of blue bag material to the landfill last year, 4,140 tonnes more than the year before.

It’s time we realize what a failed experiment this version of recycling has been. We believed a fairy tale for decades, virtuously filling blue bags and setting them by the curb. We thought simply collecting the plastic, paper, glass and tin, doing a basic sort and selling it overseas made it just disappear.