You may not know it, but your trash probably travels more than you do. The moment a plastic container ends up in your recycling bin marks the beginning of a long trip halfway across the world.
The recycling journey, until recently, ended in China, where it was cleaned, crushed and transformed into raw material. But in 2018, Beijing decided it would no longer welcome the world’s trash. With the loss of their overseas dumping ground, rich countries turned to other markets, mainly in Southeast Asia.
Flooded with foreign trash, countries like Thailand and Malaysia eventually put their foot down, some even sending trash back to where it came from.
Coffee growers in Costa Rica’s Guanacaste region face shrinking harvests as rising temperatures damage their crops and global coffee prices continue to decline, making it hard to break even. So they’ve adapted by branching out into a new business – growing oranges.
