Concerns about ocean plastic pollution and plastic recycling have never been so mainstream. From grocery stores ditching single-use bags and restaurants boycotting plastic straws, to the National Park System outlawing sales of plastic water bottles and Coke creating a bottle with an attached cap, signs of plastic recycling seem to be everywhere.
It begs the question: are any of the actions actually paying off?
An analysis by Adam Minter at Bloomberg suggests that it is working. More than that, Minter says an article that made the rounds from The Atlantic titled "Plastic Recycling Doesn't Work and Will Never Work," is just making cynical claims.
According to the Atlantic article, the United States in 2021 had a dismal recycling rate of about 5% for post-consumer plastic waste, down from a high of 9.5% in 2014.
The article states several reasons for why plastic recycling is so low compared to paper, for example, which has a recycling rate of 68% in the U.S. Besides the fact that there are thousands of different plastics with unique compositions that cannot be recycled together, reprocessing plastic waste is expensive and wasteful in itself.
Plastic is just one of those materials that cannot be effectively recycled and safely made from recycled content, The Atlantic argues. It's the reason why the plastic industry has "waged a decades-long campaign to perpetuate the myth that the material is recyclable."
Minter, however, made the counter-argument that plastic recycling is not only working, but is growing in demand. The U.S. has at least 180 facilities that reprocess billions of pounds of plastics every year. Their volumes are expected to grow substantially over the next decade as companies and governments commit to using less plastic and more products with recycled materials.
The process of separating and recycling plastic is costly compared to other materials. But that isn't stopping recyclers, according to Minter, because demand is booming for post-consumer plastics.
"That growth is partly a result of the commitment of more than 80 major packaging, consumer-goods and retailing companies globally to boost recycled content by 15% to 50% in their packaging," he wrote. "It's also a consequence of high prices for oil and virgin plastic: Manufacturers have been forced to take a second look at recycled plastics."
One analysis predicts that global demand for recycled plastics will reach $45 billion by 2025, up 30% from 2020, Minter added.
At the end of the day, headlines claiming that plastic recycling is a lie or a myth or doesn't work are just disinformation, Minter concluded.
"Plastic recycling is working, and in coming years it'll play an important role in boosting a more sustainable economy and planet," he wrote. "And that's no myth."
An estimated 33 billion pounds of plastic enter the marine environment from land-based sources every year — roughly the equivalent of dumping two garbage trucks full of plastic into the ocean every minute, according to advocacy group Oceana.
Once in the ocean, plastic waste is nearly impossible to retrieve. As it breaks down, harmful microplastics are released into the water, posing a risk to the environment and animals. Some plastic takes as long as 400 years to break down due to additives that make products stronger and more durable, according to National Geographic.
Conservationists agree the solution to plastic pollution is to prevent the waste from entering waterways in the first place, with recycling systems, the plastic industry and product manufacturers working together to accomplish the goal.
Related
Related
