Those who call it a myth ignore the facts: The US has at least 180 facilities to reprocess billions of pounds of plastics every year, and customer demand is growing.
Source: Plastic Recycling Is Working, So Ignore the Cynics
This Bloomberg article is important to share because in a short essay there is a broad overview of the plastic recycling industry. Also embedded in this post is an extremely understated point of discussion. The plastics industry continues to create products with virgin plastic because it’s cheaper than using PET. Recycling may be working, but until the EPA or some government enforcement makes a decision to limit the number of new products made from oil, this is a hamster’s wheel spinning endlessly and eventually ending in the continued degradation of the planet. It’s very similar to the sneaker industry’s promotion of recycled products. When combined with virgin plastics, it helps, but not very much. This makes the work at Sneaker Impact relevant because as long as companies find it cheaper and easier to simply make new products with petrochemicals, there will have to be strategies in place to keep those products in use for longer periods of time. Use the source link to read and learn.
