Americans are notorious for the volumes of waste we generate and ship abroad. Waste and Scrap Paper (HS 4707) has long dominated the trade, as Exhibit A shows.
But, as an export commodity, Waste and Scrap Paper is not all that valuable, as Exhibit B reveals.
Last year, containerized exports of Copper Waste & Scrap were valued at $4.776 billion, easily topping the value of U.S. exports of Aluminum Waste & Scrap ($3.640 billion), Ferrous Waste & Scrap ($2.585 billion), and Waste & Scrap Paper ($1.795 billion).
The USWC ports’ role. Over the past two decades, U.S. West Coast ports have been handling a disproportionate large but steadily declining share of the nation’s waste and scrap exports, as the following four exhibits indicate.
