The shutting of the recycling pipeline to China put a serious dent in recycling efforts on this side of the Pacific. Where we could once bale up our recyclables and ship them overseas, we're now stuck with them, since China won't take them.
As the group points out, that means recycling efforts are backsliding; fewer people are recycling or able to, and more of our stuff ends up in landfills, which recycling was supposed to prevent.
An average person now accumulates seven pounds of trash per day, says report author Celeste Meiffren-Swango. She joins us to get into some more of the specifics of the report.