Plastic recycling rates are falling in the United States as production of this material increases, says a report published on Monday by Greenpeace USA, which called industry claims about creating an efficient circular economy a “myth”. for the product.
According to the analysis, American homes generated 51 million tons of plastic waste in 2021, of which only 2.4 million tons were recycled.
The trend is down, particularly since China stopped accepting plastic waste from the West in 2018 and, at the same time, recycling some of it. In addition, plastic production prices are down due to a rapidly developing industry.
“Industrial groups and large corporations have been pushing for recycling as a solution,” Lisa Ramsden of Greenpeace USA told AFP.
“By doing this, they have shied away from all responsibility” to ensure that recycling actually works, he added. The activist mentioned companies such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Unilever and Nestlé.
According to Greenpeace, most of the 375 US material recovery centers accept only two types of plastics. The first is polyethylene terephthalate (PET), widely used for water and soda bottles, and the second is high-density polyethylene (HDPE), used for example for cleaning products.
The two types of plastic are classified into categories 1 and 2 according to the standards, which include seven types. But being theoretically recyclable doesn’t mean products are actually recycled.
According to the report, PET and HDPE recorded renewal rates of 20.9% and 10.3% respectively, lower than the previous Greenpeace survey in the United States in 2020.
In addition, type 3 to 7 plastics, which include bags, toys and yogurt packaging, among others, have recorded recycling rates of less than 5%.
Although they often have the symbol indicating possible recycling, products that use plastic types 3 through 7 do not always meet the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recyclable classification.
– Economically unsustainable –
According to the NGO document, recycling plastics doesn’t work for five reasons.
The first is the amount of plastic waste, which makes it extremely difficult to collect it all.
Furthermore, even if all the material were recovered, as the waste cannot be recycled together, in practice it would be “impossible to classify trillions of products”.
Third, the plastic recycling process itself is harmful to the environment because it exposes workers to toxic chemicals and generates microplastics.
The fourth reason is the risk of toxicity from contamination with other types of plastic in landfills, which prevents recycled plastics from being reused with food.
And finally, recycling is very expensive. “New plastics compete directly with recycled ones and the former are much cheaper to produce, of better quality”, highlights Greenpeace.
Ramsden called for the encouragement of packaging that does not use plastic and is returnable. In addition, she urged companies to support an international treaty on plastics, presented this year by the UN.
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