Coronavirus Compounds Recycling Calamity

Like other nations, China is struggling with the deadly Covid-19 virus and suffocating under mountains of trash its residents generate each day. Wuhan hospitals generated six times as much medical waste at the peak of the outbreak as they did before the crisis began. The daily output of medical waste reached 240 metric tons, about the weight of an adult blue whale.

While the pandemic has dramatically improved air quality because people are working from home and not commuting, it has been a headache for recyclers. It has inundated household waste collectors with more recyclables than they can p...