Recycled plastic particles9/19/2023 ![]() ![]() These microplastics have been found in drinking water, in table salt, in rainfall, and, recently, in human blood. But the worst part of the plastics problem is the scale of it.Īnd once discarded, plastic hangs around for centuries, breaking into ever smaller particles that spread far and wide and can carry toxic substances. No doubt about it: We are bad at recycling, and the recycling ecosystem isn’t great, either. The immense effort of weeding out the unrecyclables makes the whole process more inefficient. Things like chip bags, bubble wrap and, yes, dirty diapers. To make things worse, people often “wish-cycle,” a type of aspirational recycling where people optimistically throw things into the bin that don’t belong there. And there’s currently not much incentive for companies to use recycled content. It’s sometimes cheaper to just make new plastic. Even if something can technically be recycled, there’s often no market for the material. That happens for many reasons: It can be difficult to recycle plastics other than types 1 and 2. But in reality, often it is simply dumped. The rest may end up being sent to landfills, or burned in incinerators or shipped abroad, ostensibly to be recycled there. The pellets typically get used to manufacture products of a lower quality or value, like polyester for carpets - a practice known as “downcycling.” Plastic that can be recycled is shredded, melted and turned into pellets. Scanners can have difficulty detecting flat items or reading darker colors, such as those black to-go containers. And the problem is bigger than you.Īnd of course, the process of sorting can result in all kinds of problems.įacilities use various technologies to quickly sort through mountains of recycling, including optical scanners that can detect different types of plastic. Still, the world also has a huge plastic waste problem. Plastic has even helped in efforts to slow climate change: lightweight plastic auto parts have made vehicles more fuel-efficient, and plastic packaging can require less energy to produce and transport than alternatives like glass or metal. It’s undeniable that plastics have made daily life more convenient, affordable and, in some cases, safer. “The industry is constantly innovating to increase the recyclability of the products we make and including more recycled content at a record pace.” And though recycling rates were edging up globally, particularly for certain types of plastic, “there is so much more we need to do,” he said. “We don’t recycle enough plastic, plain and simple,” said Patrick Krieger, vice president of sustainability at the Plastics Industry Association. The rest? Nearly 80 percent has ended up in landfills or dumps, or in the natural environment, with the remainder being burned, releasing emissions that contribute to pollution and global warming. Overall, only an estimated 9 percent of all plastics ever manufactured has been recycled, according to the United Nations Environment Program. ![]() That’s because using opaque bags (which make it difficult to see what’s inside) can result in entire bags being thrown out instead of recycled. Even if you sort everything perfectly, but then put the sorted plastics in an opaque bag to be picked up, you may have just wasted the effort. “And make sure that it's empty, clean, and dry.”īut you’re not done yet. "We like to say, if it’s got a cap and a neck, or if it’s a tub with a lid, put it in the recycling bin,” he said. Pete Keller, vice president of recycling and sustainability at Republic Services, one of the largest recycling companies in the United States, said a general rule of thumb was this: Rigid plastic packaging goes in the recycling. And category 7 is a catch-all for various plastics, so it’s almost never recycled. But other numbers - particularly for soft plastics like shopping bags, snack bags or resealable sandwich bags, generally labeled 4 - are not accepted in curbside programs. Type 5 is also accepted by a growing number of curbside recycling programs. Items marked 1 and 2 are widely recyclable in the United States, and about 30 percent ends up being recycled, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. There are seven types (here’s the full list). Take those numbers, for example, the ones in the center of the symbol. ![]()
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