Plastic recycling remains a ‘myth’, warns Greenpeace

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US households produced 51 million tons of plastic waste in 2021, of which only 2.4 million tons were recycled.

Plastic recycling rates are falling in the United States while its production is on the rise, according to a report released today by Greenpeace USA, which calls the existence of a circular plastic economy promoted by the industry a “myth.”

According to this analysis, US households produced 51 million tons of plastic waste in 2021, of which only 2.4 million tons were recycled.

The trend is downward, especially after China stopped, in 2018, accepting the West’s plastic waste and at the same time recycling some of it. In addition, the production prices of plastic are decreasing, as the plastic industry is developing rapidly.

“Industry groups and big business have put pressure to present recycling as a solution,” Lisa Ramsden of Greenpeace USA explained to AFP. “By doing this, they avoided any responsibility,” she added, citing companies such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Unilever and Nestlé.

According to Greenpeace USA, only two types of plastics are accepted at most of the 375 recycling centers operating in the country.

The first is polyethylene terephthalate (PET), used for water and soft drink bottles, and the second is high-density polyethylene (PE-HD), used for example in shampoo bottles or household products.

These two types are categorized as numbers 1 and 2, according to the specifications used, which number a total of seven types of plastics.

But being recyclable in theory does not mean that the products are actually recycled.

According to the report, PET and PE-HD had recycling rates of 20.9% and 10.3% respectively – two rates that are down from Greenpeace USA’s previous survey in 2020.

In addition, type 3 to 7 plastics – which include plastic bags, children’s toys, yogurt packaging… – are recycled at rates below 5%.

Even though they carry the symbol that indicates they are recyclable, these products, which use plastics 3 through 7, are not actually recycled enough to be classified as recyclable by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Financially unsustainable

According to the report, the practice of recycling plastic does not work for five reasons.

Firstly because the amount of plastic waste is such that it is extremely difficult to collect it all.

Furthermore, even if it were all recovered, since this waste cannot be recycled together, this makes it practically “impossible to sort thousands of billions of products,” according to the report.

Third, plastic recycling processes are themselves harmful to the environment, exposing workers to chemicals and creating microplastics.

The fourth reason is that these recycled plastics cannot be reused as food containers due to the risk of them being toxic.

Finally, recycling costs too much, according to the non-governmental organization. “New plastics are directly competitive with recycled ones” and “the production of the former is much less expensive and their quality is better”, the report underlines.

Lisa Ramsden called for preference to be given to non-plastic containers that can be reused and for societies to support an international plastic treaty, which the UN began drafting this year.

She emphasized that the problem regarding plastic recycling is unique and does not apply to cardboard boxes or metals.

RES-EMP

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