How much is actually recycled

All rights reserved. This article was created in partnership with the National Geographic Society. In December , Great Britain's Royal Statistical Society named the core fact in this story—that only about nine percent of all plastic ever made has likely been recycled— its statistic of the year.

This story was first published on July 19, and updated on December 20, with the news of the Royal Statistical Society's recognition. National Geographic is committed to reducing plastics pollution. Learn more about our non-profit activities at natgeo. This story is part of Planet or Plastic? Learn what you can do to reduce your own single-use plastics , and take your pledge.

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Go Further. Animals Wild Cities This wild African cat has adapted to life in a big city. Animals This frog mysteriously re-evolved a full set of teeth. In , around 46 million tons of paper were sent in for recycling. We're willing to bet that the cardboard boxes recycled during the pandemic alone might exceed that amount, though the data is not yet available. Unfortunately, until the recycling supply chain is restored, until people start paying closer attention to the items and materials they recycle , and until the world gives up its reliance on hard-to-recycle products like plastic, things may continue to escalate until they reach untenable levels.

Why Is It Important to Recycle? Green Matters is a registered trademark. All Rights Reserved. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Eventually, Griffiths hopes to sell the machines to recycling facilities worldwide. There is cause for optimism: in December , the UK government published a comprehensive new waste strategy , partly in response to National Sword.

They hope to force the industry to invest in recycling infrastructure at home. Meanwhile, the industry is being forced to adapt: in May, countries passed measures to track and control the export of plastic waste to developing countries, while more than companies have signed a global commitment to eliminate the use of single-use plastics by Recycling rates in the west are stalling and packaging use is set to soar in developing countries, where recycling rates are low.

P erhaps there is an alternative. Since Blue Planet II brought the plastic crisis to our attention, a dying trade is having a resurgence in Britain: the milkman. More of us are choosing to have milk bottles delivered, collected and re-used. Similar models are springing up: zero-waste shops that require you to bring your own containers ; the boom in refillable cups and bottles.

Tom Szaky wants to apply the milkman model to almost everything you buy. The bearded, shaggy-haired Hungarian-Canadian is a veteran of the waste industry: he founded his first recycling startup as a student at Princeton, selling worm-based fertiliser out of re-used bottles. That company, TerraCycle, is now a recycling giant, with operations in 21 countries. The product launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos and was an immediate hit.

The result is Loop , which launched trials in France and the US this spring and will arrive in Britain this winter. The items are available online or through exclusive retailers. Customers pay a small deposit, and the used containers are eventually collected by a courier or dropped off in store Walgreens in the US, Tesco in the UK , washed, and sent back to the producer to be refilled.

Many of the Loop designs are familiar: refillable glass bottles of Coca-Cola and Tropicana; aluminium bottles of Pantene. But others are being rethought entirely. Even the deliveries come in a specially designed insulated bag, to cut down on cardboard. Tina Hill, a Paris-based copywriter, signed up to Loop soon after its launch in France. What I like about it is that they have things I already use: olive oil, washing pods.

By combining Loop with shopping at local zero-waste stores, Hills has helped her family radically reduce its reliance on single-use packaging. In future, Szaky anticipates that Loop will be able to email users warnings for expiry dates and other advice to reduce their waste footprint.

The milkman model is about more than just the bottle: it makes us think about what we consume and what we throw away. That is what needs to change. In the UK, recycling is largely a success story, and the alternatives — burning our waste or burying it — are worse.

Thanks for your questions! There was problems with plastic recycling due to the China ban for municipalities on the East and West coasts, but fortunately in the Midwest we have domestic markets for these plastics! Once our contractor sorts and bales the plastics they are sold to specific regional brokers. The manufacturers shred or pelletize the plastic containers and use that as a feedstock to make new products!

The question you are referring to — The plastics Urbana accepts in our program are sent as a mixed load to a manufacturer in Haviland Ohio to make drainage pipes. Those pipes are used for farm fields, highways and commercial applications. Please continue to place your plastic food and beverage containers in your U-Cart! We do recycle them!

And it makes a difference! We do not ship our plastics to other countries because it would not be economically feasible. We are fortunate to have the domestic markets in Georgia, Ohio and Chicago area for our plastics. We do not landfill any plastics other than plastics that are not accepted in the U-Cycle program such as plastics toys, plastic clothes hangers, etc.

Those plastics we do not have a market for so we encourage residents to read our recycling guide to ensure what they are placing in their U-Cart is acceptable.

If anything were to change regarding the plastics markets I would notify Urbana residents. I appreciate you taking the time to ask these questions. Thanks for pointing that out, Jon. We have updated the story accordingly. However, many places do not recycle those types of plastics, and adding them to the bin would counterproductive to recycling.

The beginning of the end of recycling was the switch to single stream collection. The mixing and compaction of multiple types of recyclables along with the unavoidable mix of non recyclables made, and makes, the separation into quality materials mills need to make the end products both difficult and expensive. When I was in the industry a single plastic sleeve found in an entire 20 ton load of reclyclable newspaper was cause for rejection if the entire load.

Fix that and the industry will recover quite nicely. Great article and informative. I want help reduce waste and also help clean up the environment. I am hoping that the new administration will really push for change. They should put a deposit on all bottles etc. I am sure a the engineers can set up a fully automated recycling plant sensors can sort, double check then sort. This would solve the short and the long term problem.

Robots do not need vacations, breaks, show up for work 24 hours. People do not use the recycling bens correctly and are part of the problem and not part of the solution. A large number of people do not have clue what should even go into the recycling bens. Society is paying a high price and not getting any benefit. Robots to the rescue. The problem is the tiny resale market for the properly sorted items, not the issue of sortation. The haulers came, took each bin, and dumped them in the same truck container.

This happened every time he followed to watch. The problem is partly that perfection is enemy of good. Where is the research, and data, about how to make landfills clean, and which ones are. Ditto about incineration. I even wash and reuse my plastics storage bags. I think we should go back to a bottle deposit on pop,beer,and wine bottles. No more convenient plastic water or drink bottles.

My dad would buy a case of bottle beer in a cardboard box and return all the bottles for deposit. We should be way past plastic bags at the stores,I think that is just common sense. And what about all those darn disposable diapers that people throw out in the environment with the poo in them. I have a home in Arizona and the plastic bags are blowing all over the cactus. Trash all over the place on 19 and What kind of people just dump anything from mattresses to full trash bags of garbage on the roads?

Just think if everyone just picked up one piece of trash a day what it would mean for the environment. I remember the milk coming by the milkman, in return bottles with little cardboard tops. I remember the good old days. No locked doors,no worries about the kids playing after dark. I was taught to respect others,property, the land the wildlife,and laws of the land. Thanks to anyone who read my rantings. Have a environmentally positive life and enjoy the beauty that nature offers.

Awesome article! It answers a lot of the questions I had about recycling and why it is so vitally important! Keep up the good work.