Washington Plastic recycling rates are declining despite a surge in production, according to a report released Monday by Greenpeace USA, calling the industry’s claim to create an efficient circular economy “fiction.” ” he denounced.
Entitled Circular Claims Fall Flat Again, the study found that of the 51 million tons of plastic waste generated in U.S. households in 2021, only 2.4 million tons, or about 5%, will be recycled. I understand. After peaking at 10% in 2014, trend is decreasingEspecially since China stopped accepting plastic waste from the West in 2018.
Meanwhile, virgin production of non-recycled plastic is increasing rapidly. Expansion of the petrochemical industrycost reduction.
“Industry groups and big companies are pushing recycling as a solution,” Greenpeace USA campaigner Lisa Lumsden told AFP.
“By doing so, they sidestepped all responsibility for ensuring that recycling actually works,” she added. .
According to a Greenpeace USA survey, only two types of plastic are widely accepted at 375 material recovery facilities in the country.
The first is polyethylene terephthalate (PET), commonly used in water and soda bottles. The other is High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), which is used in milk jugs, shampoo bottles and cleaning agent containers. These are numbered ‘1’ and ‘2’ according to a standardized system of seven plastic types.
However, even if a product is theoretically recyclable, it does not mean that the product is actually recycled.
According to the report, the actual reprocessing rates for PET and HDPE products are 20.9% and 10.3% respectively, both down slightly from Greenpeace USA’s last survey in 2020.
The reprocessing rate for plastic types 3 through 7 was less than 5%, including children’s toys, plastic bags, produce packaging, yogurt and margarine containers, coffee cups, and takeaway food containers.
Products that use plastic types ‘3’ through ‘7’ do not meet the Federal Trade Commission’s recyclable classification, although they often have a recycling symbol on the label.
This is because these types of recycling facilities are not available to a “substantial majority” (defined as 60%) of the population, and the products collected are not used to manufacture or assemble new items.
According to the report, there are five main reasons why plastic recycling is a ‘failed concept’.
First, plastic waste is generated in large quantities and is very difficult to collect. This is evident in what the report calls ineffective “volunteer cleanup stunts” funded by nonprofits such as “Keep America Beautiful.”
Second, even if all were collected, mixed plastic waste could not be recycled together, making it “functionally impossible to separate the trillions of consumer plastic waste generated each year.” There is,” said the report.
Third, the recycling process itself is harmful to the environment, exposing workers to toxic chemicals and itself producing microplastics.
Fourth, recycled plastic carries the risk of toxicity due to contamination with other types of plastic in the collection bin, preventing it from becoming food grade material again.
Fifth, the recycling process is prohibitively expensive.
“New plastics compete directly with recycled plastics, are much cheaper to produce and are of higher quality,” the report said.
Ramsden called on companies to support a global plastics treaty that United Nations member states agreed to create in February and to move toward refilling and recycling strategies.
“This is not really a new concept. It used to be the way milkmen used to, and how Coca-Cola got drinks to people. use it,” she said.
Some countries are leading the way, such as India, which recently banned 19 types of single-use plastic products. Austria has set a reuse target of 25% by 2025 and at least 30% of its beverage packaging by 2030, and Portugal too he has set a target of 30% by 2030. Chile is phasing out single-use cutlery and mandating refillable bottles.
