Could recycling plastic actually cause more microplastic pollution? According to a study published this month, yes.
“The current process of recycling is a potential source of plastic pollution to the environment that it is designed to help prevent,” said the study, which was published in the Journal of Hazardous Material Advances. It focused on a single mixed plastics recycling facility in the U.K.
Plastic recycling facilities could be a key source of microplastic pollution in receiving waters, researchers found. Results from the study showed that “vast numbers” of microplastics were in the U.K. facility’s wash water. These particles were “environmentally relevant,” according to researchers.
Last October, Greenpeace also released a report that concluded “most plastic simply cannot be recycled,” and that no type of plastic packaging in the U.S. met the definition of recyclable used by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Plastic Economy Initiative.
“Corporations like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestlé, and Unilever have worked with industry front groups to promote plastic recycling as the solution to plastic waste for decades,” said Greenpeace USA Senior Plastics Campaigner Lisa Ramsden. “But the data is clear: practically speaking, most plastic is just not recyclable. The real solution is to switch to systems of reuse and refill.”
According to Greenpeace, U.S. households generated an estimated 51 million tons of plastic waste in 2021. Just 2.4 million tons of that waste was recycled. In recent years, the U.S. has also said some plastic waste was recycled, even though it was shipped to China to be burned or dumped, said the organization.
Worldwide, microplastics and even smaller nanoplastics “have been found in every ecosystem on the planet from the Antarctic tundra to tropical coral reefs,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“A growing body of research demonstrates that [microplastics] are toxic to a wide range of fish,” said an article published last March in the Frontiers journal. It went on to say that, “humans eat plastic-tainted fish and are exposed to plastic particles. As a consequence, several chronic illness outbreaks occur, and people suffer the effects.”
A few months later, the World Health Organization issued a report about the impact of microplastics on human health.
“Although the limited data provide little evidence that [nano- and microplastics] have adverse effects in humans, there is increasing public awareness and an overwhelming consensus among all stakeholders that plastics do not belong in the environment, and measures should be taken to mitigate exposure to [nano- and microplastics],” said the report. “This should include better management of plastics throughout their product life-cycle and reducing the use of plastics, when possible, to move towards a more sustainable plastics economy.”
Plastic waste is extremely difficult to collect, according to Greenpeace’s October report. It is also “virtually impossible to sort for recycling, environmentally harmful to reprocess, often made of and contaminated by toxic materials, and not economical to recycle,” the report explained.
“Single-use plastics are like trillions of pieces of confetti spewed from retail and fast food stores to over 330 million U.S. residents across more than 3 million square miles each year,” Ramsden said. “It’s simply not possible to collect the vast quantity of these small pieces of plastic sold to U.S. consumers annually. More plastic is being produced, and an even smaller percentage of it is being recycled. The crisis just gets worse and worse, and, without drastic change, will continue to worsen as the industry plans to triple plastic production by 2050.”
Going forward, researchers who conducted the recent study in the U.K. believe that more research into microplastic creation is necessary.
“Future studies of [plastic recycling facilities] are highly recommended to provide a comprehensive understanding of [microplastic] creation and release due to [plastic recycling facility] actions (both atmospherically and via water discharge) across multiple facilities globally,” said the study.
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