Op-Ed: More than 90% of U.S. plastic waste is never recycled. Here’s how we can change that

By TOM UDALL AND ALAN LOWENTHAL

FEB. 21, 2020

3:01 AM

More than a third of Americans recycle every day. They want to believe that the plastic bottles, containers and packaging they use will be turned into new products — instead of being sent to landfills and incinerators or polluting our planet.

But that belief is an illusion. Eight of the 10 most commonly polluted plastic items, which includes utensils and food wrappers, are not recyclable in America’s municipal recycling system. Over 90% of U.S. plastic waste is never recycled. And so every year, about 32 million tons of plastic are landfilled or incinerated. That doesn’t count the amount that directly litters our environment or that we ship to developing countries to handle.

The reality is that we cannot recycle our way out of this crisis using the system we have in place. The heart of the problem lies in the simple fact that big corporations are producing plastic such as packaging, bags and foam that end up being unrecyclable. Once these plastic products are used, no businesses want to buy the scraps to recycle them. They end up as eternal plastic waste instead.

Read Full Article at Source: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-02-21/plastic-waste-never-recycled-u-s