Plastic recycling a myth, won’t fix climate problem: Greenpeace

Plastic recycling is a myth as only five percent of the plastic waste US households generated last year got recycled, a Greenpeace study said.

Hundreds of millions of tonnes of plastic are produced each year, which leads to major problems for the climate as plastic production and disposal account for 3.4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

“If plastics were a country, they would be the fifth largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world,” said Lisa Ramsden, senior plastics campaigner for Greenpeace USA.

Plastic is difficult to recycle as it is made from fossil fuels.

When burned in garbage incinerators, it produces even more planet-heating pollution. Studies show that even discarded plastic gives off methane and other powerful greenhouse gasses, just by being exposed to the elements.

Eventually, when it ends up floating in waterways, it can leech chemicals that disrupt oceans’ ability to sequester carbon from the atmosphere.

While corporations plan to take on this massive environmental toll by increasing recycling rates, plastic recycling has actually declined by up to 4.5 percent since its peak in 2014, the Greenpeace report said. Moreover, plastic production has increased.

Another finding suggests that no plastic product meets a common industry-backed standard for recyclability, though many bear the well-known 'chasing arrows' symbol.

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s new plastic economy initiative, an item must have a 30 percent recycling rate to receive their 'recyclable' classification. Hundreds of major corporations, including Pepsi, Starbucks, and Clorox, have signed onto a commitment agreeing to this definition.

The report says that many plastics that consumers think they are recycling never make it through a recycling process, which is why plastics have never achieved even a double digit recycling rate in the US.

Contributions to the climate crisis are just one major problem with plastic production and disposal, the report says. The material also contributes to ecosystem degradation, lets off endocrine-disrupting and cancer-causing chemicals, and harms vital coral reef ecosystems.

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Despite these numerous issues, the oil industry intends to increase plastic production. In fact, according to the International Energy Agency, plastics and other petrochemicals are expected to drive an increase in oil demand even as nations transition away from fossil-based energy and transit.

To make sure that doesn’t happen, the Greenpeace report says the world must realise plastic recycling won’t fix the problem.

“Recycling is never going to solve the plastic waste crisis. There’s simply too much plastic, and it’s just not practical to recycle most of it,” said Ramsden. “We need to focus on reducing the amount of plastic that is produced and move away from single-use plastics and towards systems of refill and reuse.”

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As a first step, Greenpeace says corporations should remove the recycling symbol from plastic products, since most of them are never recycled. This could help alleviate some confusion about the materials.