Can plastic recycling really work someday? – 09/21/2023 – Environment

Jan Dell doesn’t collect art or dolls, but what she calls “poor plastic containers.” She’s an expert and compulsive collector: her samples include oatmeal can lids, fast food cups, cleaning products wrapped in shrink-wrapped labels, and lots and lots of envelopes from Amazon.

Each of these objects has the well-known recycling symbol represented by a triangle of arrows, but Dell believes that none of them will ever be recycled.

Since 2018, when she gave up her career as a chemical engineer, Dell has run a non-profit organization called Last Beach Cleanup from her home in the mountains of Orange County, California.

His obsessive work to dispel what he calls “the myth of recycling” has resulted in a legal settlement that forces Coca-Cola, Clorox and other companies to change some of their recycling labels.

Dell also led an advisory committee that pushed forward a landmark true labeling law in California, effective September 2025, that will prohibit companies from placing recycling symbols on products that are not widely recycled in the state.

Yogurt pots can be among them, as can baby food packaging, takeout food containers and coffee cup lids.

In many places around the country, only plastic bottles and containers labeled with the numbers 1 or 2 — such as those used for soda, milk and detergent — are recycled effectively. Much of the rest ends up in landfills or polluting waters and beaches around the world. The UN estimates that humans produce 400 million tons of plastic waste per year.

While accurate labeling may seem like an insignificant measure against this backdrop, Dell argues that it is one of the most effective ways to reduce waste.

More than a third of the world’s plastic is used in packaging, and many major consumer goods manufacturers have pledged that their packaging will be 100% recyclable, reusable or biodegradable by 2025.

Dell hopes that companies that don’t meet these requirements will opt for more sustainable materials: “When they admit that what they are selling is plastic waste, they will be motivated to make changes.”

Many manufacturers who don’t want to give up this cheap, durable and versatile material have a different view. They argue that the focus should not be on what is not currently recycled, but rather on what could be recycled if there was sufficient investment in consumer education and infrastructure expansion.

California’s labeling law also raises an even more important question: When it comes to sustainable packaging, what constitutes real progress? Invest in the production of more sustainable plastic? Or alternatives to it?

The great labeling debate

The well-known recycling symbol, represented by a triangle of arrows, proliferated in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the plastics industry successfully negotiated with nearly 40 US states to make it mandatory on most products. plastics.

According to an investigation by NPR and Frontline, this industry knew that most plastic would not be recycled. It claims the numbers were only intended to help recyclers classify different types of plastic, but the arrows around them actually became an indicator for consumers, albeit a misleading one, that the product could be recycled.

In recent years, measures financed by this industry have developed new types of labeling.

How2Recycle, a recycling labeling program funded through membership fees from major manufacturers such as Walmart, Procter & Gamble, Target and Amazon, creates labels used by more than a third of the consumer packaged goods industry. These labels offer guidance on whether the packaging is recyclable — and, when it is, they give instructions on how to prepare it, such as “rinse and replace the lid.”

How2Recycle claims it is helping consumers recycle more efficiently. But Dell and others point out that some of the organization’s labels mislead people into believing that certain plastics can be recycled when that’s not true.

The material that most represents this argument is polypropylene, the plastic marked with the number 5 that is often used in yogurt and margarine packaging.

Three years ago, How2Recycle downgraded its polypropylene label, informing consumers that it was not recycled in all communities. Then, in the middle of last year, it changed the label again to “very recyclable”.

The decision to reverse the designation came after The Recycling Partnership, another industry-funded group, provided $6.7 million to recycling centers to expand the acceptance and separation of polypropylene. The group estimates that more than half of U.S. recycling centers now receive and separate material.

Paul Nowak, executive director of How2Recycle’s parent company, calls it a success: “It’s a demonstration that the program is working, because after we downgraded it, the industry mobilized and started granting subsidies and rebuilding their system.”

However, Dell argues that although more centers are receiving polypropylene, this does not mean they are selling it to be processed and reused, and it is more likely going to landfills or other countries.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that in 2018, only 2.7% of polypropylene packaging was recycled. The Recycling Partnership says its investment, which now amounts to $10.3 million, could increase that amount by 19,000 tons per year, but that still represents approximately 1% of the polypropylene produced for containers and packaging in the United States.

Part of the debate revolves around what this means for recycling. In a recent statement, the EPA recommended that materials only be marketed as recyclable if they have a “solid end market,” meaning they are sold at a price greater than the cost of disposing of them.

According to the agency, the triangle of arrows symbol “does not accurately represent recyclability, as many plastics (mainly 3 to 7) do not have an end market and their recycling is not financially viable.” The agency noted, however, that an increasing number of recycling centers are accepting polypropylene.

Judith Enck, a former EPA official and founder of Beyond Plastics, a non-governmental organization focused on raising awareness and combating plastic-related environmental problems, argues that although recycling centers can receive all types of plastic, classifying them , cleaning them and producing new materials from them is another matter.

Contrary to what the plastic industry claims, Enck emphasizes that there is no amount of money that can significantly increase plastic recycling beyond bottles and packaging labeled with numbers 1 and 2: “Plastic recycling only exists in the minds of agencies of public relations that promote it”.

‘We can achieve this progress’

Under California’s new true labeling law, polypropylene — and all other plastics — will only be considered recyclable if they meet two conditions: if 60% of Californians have access to a recycler that receives and sorts the material, and if 60% of the state’s recyclers have access to a processing facility.

The California Department of Resource Recycling and Recovery, or CalRecycle, is currently studying what materials recyclers are collecting — and where they go.

When the agency publishes its findings next year, companies will have 18 months to change their labels. Manufacturers of disposable food packaging and products, such as cups and utensils, will also face pressure from California’s new extended producer responsibility law, which requires them to make their products recyclable or biodegradable by 2032.

Because California represents a large part of the U.S. economy, the combined impact of these laws is likely to be felt nationwide, said Heidi Sanborn, former chairwoman of the recycling commission that promoted them. “

Companies are already contacting packaging manufacturers to say, ‘I don’t think number 6 is going to work anymore.’ And they’re not just going to make these changes for California.”

Of course, the plastics industry may dispute CalRecycle’s findings, but Sanborn said that if the California law works as Dell hopes, manufacturers will be forced to switch to reusable or truly recyclable materials.