Plastic Recycling is a ‘Failed Concept’ – New Study

A study by the United States (US) Non-Profit Organization (NGO) Greenpeace claims that plastic recycling rates are decreasing even as production increases.

The NGO revealed this in a report on a research study titled ‘Circular Claims Fall Flat Again’, released on Monday, saying that the industry has created a ‘fictional’ circular economy.

According to the study, only 2.4 million tons, or about 5%, of the 51 million tons of plastic waste generated by US households in 2021 were recycled. After peaking at 10% in 2014, the trend has been declining, particularly since China stopped accepting Western plastic waste in 2018.

Just two different types of plastic are generally accepted at the 375 material recovery facilities in the US, according to the survey. 

The first is polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is usually present in water and soda bottles; the second is high-density polyethylene (HDPE), which is found in milk jugs, shampoo bottles, and cleaning product containers. 

According to a standardized system with seven plastic types, these are numbered “1” and “2.” However, being recyclable in theory does not imply that products are actually being recycled.

The study further discovered that actual reprocessing rates for PET and HDPE products were 20.9 percent and 10.3 percent respectively, both slightly lower than the organization’s previous survey in 2020. 

This is due to the fact that these types of recycling facilities are not accessible to a significant (60 percent) number of people according to the study, and the collected products are not used in the production or assembly of new items.