"what kind of bizarre world do we live in where we ship our trash to overseas places to be 'recycled' ? It just doesn't make any sense" It actually makes a lot

"what kind of bizarre world do we live in where we ship our trash to overseas places to be 'recycled' ? It just doesn't make any sense" It actually makes a lot of sense. If recycling is somehow labour intense (it might be), and if the value of recycled plastic is worth more in one place to another, then at this point is just basic arbitrage. As far as 'long term storage of garbage' that's one thing - but there are enough basic economic components to recycling that it should be thought of as a product, just like any other. Every product has weird externalities, not just recycling.