The Wall Street Journal reported that the industry for recycled products is collapsing.  Until late last year, China was the largest importer of U.S. recyclables.  At the beginning of 2018, in a decision that many attribute to trade tensions between the U.S. and China, China imposed more stringent quality standards on imports of recycled material and ceased importing U.S. mixed paper and mixed plastic of any quality until June 4, 2018.   As a result of the harsher standards, the prices of scrap paper and plastic have plummeted.  While other countries, such as India and Vietnam, have imported some of the waste that would have been sent to China, there remain large amounts of unsold recycled material.
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