China won’t take our plastic trash anymore, and we can't find anywhere else to send it all

For a quarter century, the U.S. has found it cheaper to ship plastic scrap overseas for recycling than to do it at home. China came to dominate that market -- but last year announced it didn't want the scrap anymore. No other countries are ready to handle it.

Angela Hsieh/NPR When she went looking for her birth mother, she hoped to find a bit of herself, too. But the reunion wasn’t what she expected NPR's Ashley Westerman was born in the Philippines but raised by white Americans in rural Kentucky, with no one around who looked like her. This year, she tracked down the woman who gave her up for adoption three decades ago and writes about the hopes, trepidation and even disappointment of the journey and eventual meeting. It wasn't everything she had wanted, but, she writes, it brought some clarity — for her and for her birth mom. Robert Noonan/Science Source Savor those barbecues: The increasing range the Lone Star tick could make the next burger, lamb kabob or pork chop your last The tiny arachnid, once confined to the country’s Southeast, can now be found from Oklahoma City to the Chicago suburbs to Bangor, Maine. Its bite can cause an allergy to red meat, with symptoms that can range from a runny nose to a rash and nausea, even asthma and anaphylaxis. “We're confident the number is over 5,000 [cases], and that's in the U.S. alone," one allergist says. And don’t plan to drown your summer sorrows in an ice cream cone: Some people’s allergies are triggered by dairy, too. Michael Reaves/Getty Images In Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement, yet-another 2016 aftershock rumbles through Kennedy had reliably been the center of the Supreme Court for years, but it seems the center can’t hold anymore in the United States, writes NPR’s Ron Elving. The justice sided with the court’s conservative wing on the most controversial subjects this term — including abortion rights, which stand to face intense new challenges with the new Kennedy-less bench. A more sharply divided high court will reflect the country’s politics, as primary results this year have pushed the parties further from the middle. Jie Zhao/Corbis via Getty Images The U.S. sent a small mountain of our recycling across the Pacific to China last year. This year, there is nowhere for it to go Citing health concerns and environmental protection, China shut down imports of plastic scrap. Malaysia, Thailand or Vietnam have picked up some of the 372,000-metric-ton business but are quickly capping out their capacities. So it's piling up in landfills and being dumped into incinerators here. "This export mindset that has developed in the U.S. is one that has to change," says a Yale policy expert. Angela Hsieh/NPR The best songs of the first half of the year, picked by NPR’s experts and your stations’ music fiends If you’re in the market for a new go-to anthem, you’ll find all kinds here, each the personal choice of a public radio journalist. No haggling, no voting — each reached into their heart and picked what nestled closest. If you’re more into novels than short stories, they’ve picked favorite albums, too. You received this message because you're subscribed to our Best of NPR emails. |  Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy | NPR 1111 N. CAPITOL ST. NE WASHINGTON DC 20002