China's decision to stop accepting some material is causing a shift in the U.S. waste industry.

WOODINVILLE WA— At Waste Management’s Cascade Recycling Center, humans and machines toil at a frantic pace to keep cardboard, plastics and aluminum out of the landfill.

Things have become more hectic. After growing pickier over several years, China on Jan. 1 stopped accepting imports of many recyclable materials. That country had been the main destination for sorted bales from stateside recycling facilities.

“If there’s an upside, China has created a catalyst to rethink recycling,” said Jackie Lang, a spokeswoman for Waste Management. “The reality is, if there’s not a viable end market for a product, it doesn’t belong in the recycling container. People are understanding that more clearly today.”

To better sort the collective contents of thousands of recycling bins, Waste Management has taken steps such as slowing the processing lines at the Woodinville facility and adding workers. The recycling industry also redoubled efforts to educate customers.

The center on NE 190th Street takes in about 600 tons of potentially recyclable waste every day. On the tipping floor, an excavator shoves mounds of refuse onto a conveyor belt. This is where the contents from about two-thirds of the curbside recycling bins in Snohomish County wind up.

This pile will grow or shrink depending on the time of year,” said Hannah Scholes, an education and outreach coordinator with Waste Management. “For example, around Christmas, we’ll see a lot more boxes.”

From there, it follows a crisscrossing path through a series of sorting machines.

An army of human hands picks through piles on the conveyor belt. Near the beginning of the line, neon-vested workers in hardhats pull out wire, garden hoses and other objects that could tangle up the machinery. Farther down, co-workers snatch plastic bags, which can’t be processed. Later, optical scanners and employees divert plastic bottles from the flow so they can be recycled.

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