In the Wall Street Journal, Jennifer Levitz reports on booming U.S. exports of scrap and waste paper to China:

Exports of waste paper, the term given to the market for second-hand boxes and other scrap paper, are taking off. The U.S. has long shipped its discarded paper—cardboard, newspapers, catalogues, phone books and other scraps—to emerging markets like China, which doesn't yet have enough imports, hearty trees, or a strong enough recycling habit to generate ample raw materials to make boxes for its own booming export market. 

But now, with a revival in U.S. consumer spending underway, China needs the U.S.'s old boxes in order to make new boxes to ship stuff back to the U.S.

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