Many materials recycle fairly easily such as metals, glass, and paper. Plastics are another matter.

There are multiple varieties and they are difficult to separate. A few types of plastic are fairly easy to recycle but others require careful manual sorting. That’s where China came in.

For a time China provided many, many low-wage jobs to do this work. But economics have changed and China can no longer recycle odd plastics profitably. So it called it quits.