by Sophie Hirsh
For World Economic Forum
Photo: Many environmentalists and skeptics have found that the plastic recycling industry can be a bit of a scam, leading many to wonder: does plastic get recycled?
Image: Unsplash/Sylwia Bartyzel
For decades, recycling has been touted as one of the easiest and most important things that individuals can do for the planet. However, many environmentalists and skeptics have found that the plastic recycling industry can be a bit of a scam, leading many to wonder: does plastic get recycled?
According to a new Greenpeace USA report, not only does a lot of recyclable plastic not actually get recycled, but most of the plastic used in the U.S. is not actually recyclable at all — but that doesn’t mean we should stop recycling. Keep reading for the details on the report.
Does plastic get recycled? A Greenpeace report’s findings are pretty discouraging.
Greenpeace USA just released a new report titled Circular Claims Fall Flat Again, which is an update of a 2020 report. The new report analyzed plastic generation, use, and recycling in the U.S., and found that in 2021, U.S. households produced about 51 million tons of plastic waste in 2021. Of that, only about 2.4 million tons were recycled. That’s just 4.7 percent.
The remaining 95.3 percent? That presumably went to landfills. Womp.
Additionally, Greenpeace found that of all the plastic packaging used in the U.S., literally none of it can be classified as “recyclable,” as defined by the Ellen MacArthur Foundations’ New Plastic Economy Initiative, which requires an item to be at least 30 percent recyclable to be designated as recyclable.
