Beyond Plastics President: ‘Plastic recycling has been an abysmal failure'

President of Beyond Plastics, Judith Enck joins the Mark Reardon Show to discuss her article in the Atlantic, "Plastic Recycling Doesn't Work and Will Never Work."

“I want to make it very clear… you should keep recycling. Metal, glass, paper, and cardboard. Keep doing it, but I think we need to be honest that plastic recycling has been an abysmal failure… Plastic recycling only achieves 5-6% recycling rate. At its peak, it never even broke double digits,” shared Enck.

Later Enck warns on single use plastic bags, “Film plastic only has about a 5% recycling rate in this country. If you tour a material recovery facility, which is a fancy recycling center, you’ll see those plastic bags get caught in the equipment and the gears. It brings the whole line to a halt. The people who run those big recycling centers really don’t like to see plastic bags in your recycling bins.”

Listen to more from 97.1 FM Talk:

Live On-Air
Ask Your Smart Speaker to Play Ninety Seven One FM Talk
97.1 FM Talk
Listen Now
Now Playing
Now Playing

And Download the Audacy app to listen to 97.1 FM Talk

Featured Image Photo Credit: © 2021 KFTK (Audacy). All rights reserved. | (Photo by Natalie Behring/Getty Images)