“Still, across much of the United States, including most major cities, recycling is continuing as usual.”
The article is wrong on that statement and how it is wrong also means the article’s focus on mainly China as the cause of the recycling problem misses what is really wrong, and not merely in the U.S. Pacific Northwest - OVER SUPPLY of goods put out for recycling that in many places now exceed what the end-users of the material can use.
Collectors and distributors of goods disposed of for recycling are finding they cannot get as much for the goods because supply is so much the buyers of the material won’t pay what they use to. Some municipalities are facing higher recycling charges needed to keep their recycling process in business. Even then, expect more landfill dumping of goods put out for recycling.
The good thing of recycling is being done more than ever now, and done so much that many more buyers of the material cannot use all collectors can deliver. They won’t pay the collectors what they use to, so the revenue vs profit margins of the collectors is shrinking, and to some the recycling has become not worth it. Cheaper to not do it at all, no extra loads to pick up on different days, pretending you’ll get your monies worth selling it - just take it to the landfill with the regular garbage.
The problem is that the supply curve is inflexible. This is a unique problem in economics, because usually the supply will respond very quickly to price, so when the price drops, less is produced, and prices can stabilize.
In this case, the supply is fixed by the regulations that require recycling. So when more product is dumped on the market than the market can handle, the price drops. However, the price signal to decrease production is defeated. Low price does not effect supply, because people are required to recycle, regardless of the price. The material is produced at what amounts to a fixed rate. So the price gets driven down to zero, or pretty close to zero.
There is a fiction that there is a functioning market for recycled materials, but as long as the supply rate is fixed, a functioning market is impossible.