In 2018, China banned the import of most of the world’s recycling. Now, Chinese companies are investing in recycling facilities in the U.S.

Chinese paper companies are opening offices in the U.S. in an attempt to gather and export recycled pulp, instead of the raw recyclable materials. The trend comes after China implemented a series of new policies prohibiting the import of scrap recyclable materials in 2018 that is having huge repercussions on the global recycling market.

“It was an aphorism in the recycling industry that China had the most stringent environmental laws in place. They just didn’t enforce them. Well, that changed beginning in 2013, with a Customs Enforcement action called Operation Green Fence,” Dylan de Thomas, vice president of industry collaboration at the Recycling Partnership, told CNBC.

Laws regarding specific environmental regulations were passed in 2006 and 2010, and the country officially began a crackdown in February 2013. Recovered plastic shipments…