We Can’t Give Up on Plastic Recycling: We Must Do Better
Guest blog author Kristen Rinehart is the vice president and general manager of recycling for NERC Advisory Member Advanced Drainage Systems (ADS), a Hilliard OH-based stormwater management company and the largest plastic recycler in North America.
Here’s a harsh reality: Americans are really good at generating plastic waste and really bad at recycling it. According to the World Economic Forum, the U.S. recycling rate for the 40 million tons of plastic waste generated annually is only about 5%. In October, Greenpeace USA released a report that claims plastic recycling is a failure, declaring, "The data is clear: Practically speaking, most plastic is just not recyclable.”
Recycling plastic certainly isn’t easy. Plastic bags and Styrofoam are notably difficult to recycle. But to give up on plastic recycling altogether would be a tragic mistake –– not just for the environment, but for the economy. But first, as Greenpeace suggests, let’s look at the data. While it is certainly true that we don’t recycle enough plastic, it isn’t because plastic cannot be recycled. Recycling businesses are actually…