Hardly any plastics can be truly recycled, and producers have known for decades: Report

Plastics producers have promoted recycling their products as an environmental solution for decades despite firsthand knowledge that it was not feasible, according to a report published Thursday.

More than 99 percent of plastics are produced using fossil fuels, and of these, the vast majority cannot be “recycled” in the sense of being processed and turned into entirely new products, according to the report from the Center for Climate Integrity. Viable end markets, or businesses that buy recyclables to make new products, only exist for polyethylene terephthalate and high-density polyethylene plastic containers, according to the report. Environmental Protection Agency materials have documented this for at least 30 years. 

Moreover, while some local and city recycling programs collect other categories of plastics, they do not fully recycle them. Those other plastics are burned or deposited in landfills, instead. In many cases, chemical additives or coloring make it impossible to recycle the same types of plastic together, while even plastic products that can be legitimately repurposed degrade in quality over time, and the cost of the process is more than that of producing entirely new plastic. 

The Center blames the petrochemical industry for the perception that plastics are widely recycled, noting that the industry promoted disposable plastics through the 1950s and 1960s and has since promoted the idea of recycling in response to widespread opposition to single-use plastics. The industry began promoting mass landfilling in the 1970s, and then pivoted to promoting recycling in the 1980s.

“For decades, petrochemical companies and the plastics industry have known of the technical and economic limitations that make plastics unrecyclable and have failed to overcome them,” the report states. “Despite this knowledge, the plastics industry has continued to increase plastic production, while carrying out a well-coordinated campaign to deceive consumers, policymakers, and regulators about plastic recycling.”

The American Chemistry Council’s Plastics Division and its member companies defended industry practices in a statement Thursday.

“Unfortunately, this flawed report cites outdated, decades-old technologies, and works against our goals to be more sustainable by mischaracterizing the industry and the state of today’s recycling technologies,” America’s Plastic Makers President Ross Eisenberg said in a statement. “This undermines the essential benefits of plastics and the important work underway to improve the way plastics are used and reused to meet society’s needs.” 

Plastics Industry Association President and CEO Matt Seaholm said in a separate statement that the report “was created by an activist, anti-recycling organization and disregards the incredible investments in recycling technologies made by our industry,”

–Updated on Feb. 16 at 8:13 a.m.