Beyond Plastics: Myths and Truths About Recycling and Potential Solutions

The ubiquity of plastic has become a global concern. An estimated 242 million metric tons are generated each year, and the United States is one of the major producers. Although recycling seems like a simple solution, it is not. Recycling plastic has proven inefficient, as evidenced by a shocking statistic from Our World in Data: of the 5.8 billion metric tons of plastic waste generated between 1950 and 2015, only around 9% was recycled. The rest was left to be incinerated, landfilled or littered. On top of that, a more recent report by nonprofit The Last Beach Cleanup and advocacy group Beyond Plastics found that number to be even lower, with just 5% to 6% of state plastic waste. States converted to new products in 2021.< /p>

It can be hard to believe that so little plastic has been recycled, given how commoditized recycling is. But the truth is that plastic is not easy to recycle. Plastic products are usually made up of a mixture of chemicals that can create difficulties in the recycling process, and it is more difficult to isolate the basic materials that can be recovered and reused. So how come environmental campaigns present recycling as such a simple solution?

The plastic problem isn't new, of course, but I learned more about its large-scale consequences in a recent conversation with Judith Enck, president of Beyond Plastics. The national project based at Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont, combines the experience of environmental policy experts with creative students to achieve the institutional, economic and societal changes needed to tackle the plastic pollution crisis.

During our conversation, Enck touched on the critical need for companies to be held accountable for the environmental impacts of their products, as well as the major issue of chemical recycling and the abundance of greenwashing among companies that take "environmental actions".

Extended Producer Responsibility

As I shared in my first post of my conversation with Enck, the first step she suggests to tackle the plastic problem is to create clear and measurable requirements in extended producer responsibility policies ( REP), with an emphasis on reduction. EPR is the concept that manufacturers and importers should be held responsible for the environmental impacts of their products throughout their life cycle.

While many environmental groups agree that it is important to have these policies in place, many special interest groups have taken advantage of legislators who lack political depth on such a complex issue and have therefore developed their own EPR bills. Take, for example, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which is known for drafting model legislation with large corporations — usually the same corporations that fund ALEC — and then encouraging...