[massivecali]

What third world company do we dump our trash in? AFAIK we sell it to them.

[baroffoos]

Recently these countries have blocked the import of the trash because it absolutely destroys these countries. The "recycling" companies buy in mountains of trash, pick out a few bits that are profitable and dump the rest somewhere. Currently only a tiny part of recyclables actually gets recycled or downcycled because the rest is cheaper to pull fresh resources out of the ground.

[throwaway_9168]

>> AFAIK we sell it to them

That implies there are other buyers who are happy to pay money to take it, doesn't it? That doesn't seem to be happening though:

https://qz.com/117151/us-states-banned-from-exporting-their-...

I suppose some countries agree to take the trash in return for some kind of economic favor from the US?

[rohit2412]

Yes, not only the western countries dump it in developing countries, they get money for it.