solved Maya INITIAL REPLY Waste diversion is a very helpful tool

Maya 
INITIAL REPLY

Waste diversion is a very helpful tool in measuring a city’s waste management systems and general resource allocation. At the moment, cities use their waste diversion rate in this way, which accounts for all waste that is diverted from landfills. However, this tool is imperfect in that sometimes waste that is diverted does not actually get reused or recycled appropriately and ends up causing further harmful environmental impacts, such as in the China debacle mentioned. 
Since people and groups of people are generally motivated by money above environmental or social impacts (sadly), the assurance of waste recycling or reuse must be marketable and involve some type of monetary investment. One study examined the correlation between municipal recycling incentivization and municipal recycling rates/programs in Ontario, Canada. Despite the direct proportion between municipal recycling funding and recycling rates, there was no statistically significant relationship between the two. This leads me to the idea that maybe it’s not just monetary incentivization to recycle that can assure proper waste diversion, but the enactment of laws or policies that require proper diversion so that there is no escape. At this point, with the population increasing further and further, proper waste management is crucial in mitigating environmental impacts from landfills or other detrimental waste disposal or storage methods.
Another issue in regard to recycling is the export of recycled commodities to other countries, such as China and India, that will import American solid waste (recycling or otherwise) and do with it what they see fit. In this way, it is out of our hands and we do not take responsibility for the environmental impacts. After some research, it seems that in the past couple years, paper and plastic exports out of the United States have greatly decreased due to national policies or bans in the importing countries on certain types of waste products. In just one year (between 2018 and 2019), there was a 13% drop in recycled paper exports and a 38% decline in plastics export. This represents the opportunity for the expansion of recycling companies in America, where although we will be strictly responsible for proper recycling, we have the potential for a very positive impact. I believe that this major decrease in export poses a market for American recycling companies to develop better recycling and reuse processes that can be invested in by those in power who are sustainably motivated and progressive thinkers. In this way, I think the development by U.S. government of strict precautions on recycled commodity export, such as limits on amounts, limits on what can be exported, etc., will motivate recycled waste to instead be diverted to successful domestic recycling companies. People hate limitations and putting many limitations on exportation will hopefully put an end to this so that we can be entirely responsible for our own recycling processes.