Slate wrote that 97% of all waste in the USA happens before we individually touch anything. This follows the release of a new Greenpeace report that reveals the truth about our plastic recycling efforts, and CBSNews reports it is not good news. In 2021, USA households produced ~51M tons of plastic waste, and only ~2.4M tons were actually recycled. What is going on with recycling?
In 2016 California Senate bill 1383 was signed into law, which made separated food waste collection in the state mandatory, and set a deadline to enact the law. The aim was for a 75% reduction in landfilled organic waste by 2025. As a result many of us in California have recently received notices from our Waste Management companies, with updated recycling directions as they are starting to ramp up implementation now.
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Plastic Types
How Plastic Recycling Works
Plastics in the USA are first sorted at home by consumers. Then picked up curbside and taken to a recycling center, where it gets sorted by polymer type (although all black containers are tossed). Then all the approved types (usually #1, #2 and #5) are shredded, washed, melted, pelletized, sold to a manufacturing plant, and eventually reused into new products.
Plastic Recycling Truths
While we may place all these types of plastic into the recycling bin, in the USA mostly only #1 and #2 are recycled. The others are just disposed or melted and sent to the landfill.
- The recycling icon and number IS NOT an indication that the product is able to be recycled, or is recycled.
- As far as consumers are concerned, it should be viewed as only a marketing tool to fool or confuse us into thinking we can recycle the item.
Here are just a few of the facts:
- Back in 2014 the USA public recycled 9.5% of its used plastic.
- In 2018 it was slipping to 8.7% plastic recycling.
- In 2019, the USA Government stated individual Americans used 295# of plastic that year.
- Globally in 2019, only 9% of global plastic was recycled.
- In 2020 USA recycled 6% of its plastic waste, whereas the European Union (including Norway, Switzerland and the UK) recycled ~37%.
- Worryingly, in 2021 the USA recycled plastic at only a 5-6%, SmithsonianMag clarified that at Least 85 Percent of U.S. Plastic Waste Went to Landfills in 2021.
- Now reports are that the USA recycles only 20.9% of all the #1 plastic we use and only 10.3% of #2 plastic, which are the easiest to recycle.
Greenpeace reports that during those early years recycling appeared higher because the government counted shipping plastic to China for disposal, as recycling. Reality is China burnt or otherwise dumped most of that plastic.
Plastic Politics
California just signed a law in 2022 that will ban the recycling icon on all plastic but #1 and #2. Supporters of this change believe it will make what is and isn’t realistically recyclable more understandable to consumers.
Opponents in the plastic industry believe the bill could pile waste in the landfill and raise packaging costs. Well, the reality is that all the other plastics mainly wind up in the landfill anyways, the icon itself does not make anything recyclable, but it does mislead consumers into thinking they are shopping responsibly.
Plastic Designations
Plastic is in everything, but let me narrow this down per recycle number and discuss how it is food related.
#1 is what I run into most commonly as part of the food and drink delivery containers. I do not generally drink from soda bottles, so it has been mainly through the occasional water bottle.
What I have done is install water filters at home and in the RV, and carry metal or glass water containers for us and the dogs. We rarely buy water in bottles now. But this plastic is also used for peanut butter and jelly jars. Luckily, I buy Adams Natural peanut butter, which comes in a glass jar with a metal lid, and make sure to pick the same for jelly or jams. Similar with any salad dressings, where my preference is in glass containers. As to tote bags, I have enough of them in my car and the RV. This is probably both the most recycled plastic, and the one I can most easily remove from my home.
#2 is the one plastic we have used a lot, and dutifully clean and recyle.
I may get milk or distilled water (for a medical device) in this type of container. But usually buy Straus milk which comes in glass, however distilled water is still packaged in plastic. We do occasionally buy cereal, so have started to recycle liners as well.
#3 is ”poison plastic” and yet used for teething rings, children and pet toys, and clear plastic food wrapping. And I do not understand why.
Without a doubt, plastic packaging revolutionized the global food system by keeping food safe as it moved across around the world; but at what cost? I try to avoid buying any food wrapped in clear plastic, but you know how hard that can be. What I do not like is having to be ”on guard” when I shop, since it can sometimes feel like companies are just trying to make a penny by harming us.
#4 is found in plastic wraps, those sandwich bags I reuse over and over until they get holes, squeezable bottles, grocery bags, food storage containers and to-go beverage cups.
I have been thinking about using silicon baggies in place of the plastic ones for a while, but many consider them plastic as well. Slowly we have been getting rid of our plastic storage containers in favor of glass ones. For grocery bags and other #4 items, I pack them into a plastic grocery bag and deposit them at our local Lucky Store for recycling. Sometimes we reuse these bags until they tear, and sometimes they become doggy poop bags.
#5 Every container has a top, and most of them are plastic made of this material. But so are yogurt and margarine containers, chip bags, plastic drinking straws, syrup bottles, etc.
The only change I have made in this area is to no longer use plastic drinking straws, as we have metal ones in the home and RV. The last time I had a big bag of plastic straws I gave them to an elementary teacher for art class students. Good way to pass them on, but doubt those were recycled either, as our Waste Management company says straws belong in the garbage. Our Waste Management folks are now clearly stating they will recycle the tops if they are larger than 2”x2”.
#6 I do not use any foam cups, or foam take-out containers.
Luckily, in my area of the world most restauranteurs here have moved to plain paper containers, as have grocery stores with egg containers. We still wind up getting plastic cutlery sometimes, but also have seen more restaurants use bamboo cutlery. Even foam packaging is being changed for paper and cardboard options.
#7 Baby bottles and toddler sippy-cups uses this type of plastic.
I have always preferred glass baby bottles and can now say my preference has a reason. The large water container, used in some homes and many offices, also use this plastic, sold under the guise of providing better quality water for our family.
Stating The Obvious
The problems with recycling plastics are many, and obvious. Despite the reality I will present below, it is the major National and International Corporations pushing the false narrative that plastic recycling works.
- Plastics are considered by every study I reviewed, as very difficult material to recycle.
- They are especially hard to pre-sort at home, or in recycling centers, given all the various types of plastic used.
- Many people do not clean their recyclable plastic, which are then discarded into the landfill as contaminated.
- It is especially hard to sort combos, where even in one plastic item may contain differing plastic combinations.
- Plastic is everywhere and in things that do not even look like plastic, increasing the difficulty for collection.
- Reprocessing plastic is dangerous as it can create microplastic, which is harmful to the environment and workers.
- Often the creation of these plastic items, or what they contain, may themselves be toxic, making reprocessing dangerous.
- Reprocessing plastic has not been found to be economical, as there are limited markets for the recycled product given it is often more expensive than virgin material.
- The only true recycled plastics right now are the #1 and #2 labeled items.
The problems is not the concept of recycling, but somehow with the plastic materials themselves. Paper, cardboard, metal, and glass are recycled without these same issues and have proven we can recycle and reuse. In fact, paper recycling increased from 1980 at 21.3% to 2018 at 68.2%.
What are the Problems
Obviously, some of the blame is on us as individuals. In 2021 households in the USA reportedly generated ~51M tons of plastic waste, and only 2.4M tons of that waste was recycled. So we actually need to be more diligent in our recycling efforts. It is not a matter that collection services are not available, its that we are just not paying attention.
But that alone will not solve the problem, as consumers we need to limit our use of plastic to items that actually are recyclable. That would mean only buying #1 or #2 plastics, if we wanted plastic packaging at all. Or demand to buy food in only paper, metal or glass containers. But even then we need to be better informed, for instance did you know that colored #1 plastic bottles are not recyclable, but the clear #1 bottles are highly sought after?
We need to upgrade our recycling infrastructure and force a market for recycled materials since these areas seem to be either outdated or underused.
- One problem is that mixed plastics cannot be recycled as a group, they need to be properly sorted which would be way to expensive for companies to do themselves.
- Plastic recycling produces waste itself, and that hazard waste (plastic is not inert like glass) is subject to fires.
- The typical optical sorting systems used at many recycling plants cannot pick out the black pigment in plastic. So black plastic is unsorted and tossed into landfill.
Companies, from manufacturers to restaurants, must stop producing and using single use plastics. Focus on using plastic we can actually recycle, and truly research the efforts to recycle other plastics as well. In fact, they need to stop lying about all these ”moon shots” to recycle plastics, and stop using the recycling icon on items not actually recyclable.
- New plastic is often cheaper and better than recycled plastic. So to keep costs low, companies will often choose to not use recycled materials.
- They use the black plastic and place a recycle icon on it, but know in most places it does not get recycled.
Another thing companies can do is stop using plastic and go back to glass, metal and paper. TheHill reports that 72% of the top 300 Fortune 500 companies made a pledge to reduce plastic pollution in public reports. But rather than stop using plastic, they increased the use of recycled plastic a bit, or they changed the packaging so it used just a little bit less plastic, or have put money into studying the problem. But the proof of businesses inaction is that from 1950 to 2017, plastic production surged 174-fold and is projected to double again by 2040!
Some say that we just cannot recycle our way out of this plastic mess we have made. We need to consider the fundamentals of petroleum-based plastics.
Where are the Solutions
GreenMatters writes, sadly, until someone invents a harmless, biodegradable, fully recyclable plastic made from something besides petroleum, plastic as a material will never be considered eco-friendly.
We as consumers of these plastic items need to take a stand where we can.
- Avoid plastic in favor of no packaging, glass, metal, or paper products.
- Right to major corporations demanding they start reducing plastic use.
- Do not use any single-use plastic such as bags, water bottles and coffee cups.
- Use reusable grocery bags, water thermos’s, and reusable coffee mugs. Carry your own bags for shopping.
- Make decisions on what you buy for your family, your children, your pets.
- Click on Earth911 to find a recycling center near you, by what you want to recycle and your zip code.
Ideas for the Future
All of these ideas are small, local attempts to recycle plastic, and are happening outside of the USA. Venture Capitalists do not seem to be jumping on these ideas and funding often comes from governments, non-profit organizations, and us.
Meanwhile Greenpeace, and many other environmental groups, have been warning about the petroleum and chemical industry’s “greenwashing” of plastic recycling for decades. We did not really listen to them. Instead, those same chemical companies continue to insist we’re just on the cusp of a some major breakthrough that will make recycling and reusing plastics feasible and cost-effective.
Why do they keep making these unkept promises about recycling plastic? First, the petroleum industry, oil and gas companies, are doing this as they clearly foresee the demand for transportation-based oil and gas plummeting this century due to the rise of electric vehicles and they want to keep the petroleum-based plastic manufacturing business alive. Second, they recognize the public, i.e., consumers and politicians, are raising concerns and demands for recycling.
But the fundamental question, which I cannot answer, is this: can all plastic be recycled? I think the answer is most probably “no”. So it seems one reasonable response is to not make something that cannot be recycled.
By the way, CNN reported (Oct 2022) that we humans now consume about a credit-card size of plastic every week. They write, the plastic you are unwittingly eating and breathing is in the form of microplastics, tiny amounts of the substance that shed off of our everyday objects. Additionally, while I knew plastic was showing up in our body, some are indicating microplastics have been found in human blood, lung, spleen, and kidney tissue, and even in fetal tissue.
If anything, this reaffirms my commitment to review and remove the plastic in my life where feasible, starting in my kitchen.
—Patty
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