The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally released its long-awaited new National Recycling Strategy — and it was not worth waiting for. Instead of following these misguided and stale guidelines, local municipalities should reimagine their own recycling guidelines and turn their waste stream into a profitable “mine.”

Under pressure from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to identify ways to increase the amount of municipal waste that is reused, the EPA offered a plan which avoids confronting a materials marketplace that has dramatically changed since the Chinese government started limiting recycling imports into China.