Whitcomb, I. (2020, March 6). How much plastic actually gets recycled? Retrieved March 8, 2020, from https://www.livescience.com/how-much-plastic-recycling.html
The United States continues to produce millions of tons of plastic each year, but a new study shows that only 8.4% of it eventually gets recycled. The article discusses that it isn’t the consumer that doesn’t want to recycle rather that the United States simply doesn’t have the proper infrastructure. It further discusses that plastic types 1 and 2 are easy to turn into pellets that can be used for manufacturing, but higher plastic types (mixed plastic) are a lot more difficult.
This article brings to light the recycling problem the United States has – so much recycled plastic, but nothing being done with it. It is surprising how little actually gets recycled, even though consumers are actively trying to recycle and think that what they put in the blue bins are getting turned into different products. One issue the article discusses is the lack of infrastructure in the United States for recycling plastic. It is surprising that in the country with the most amount of technical innovations, we have little in terms of recycling technology. If the recycling centers can only take plastics labeled “1” or “2”, then manufacturers should make more products with this kind of plastic.
You now know what most don’t- there are major problems with recycling plastic. Only 8.4% That is pathetic! So what is the problem? You are right to say we have the ability to do high tech innovation… and if there was money to be made with recycled plastic, I’d have to think there would be lots of people trying to figure it out. The reality is the way we do it now, the profit (and market) must not be there for recycled goods. So how do we rectify this? Seems like the producers need to be part of the solution.