Recycling: challenges and best practices

Recycling seems simple: put your plastics in the bin and the material will be made into brand new products.

Why, then, do we only recover and recycle ~9% of our waste single-use plastics?

The actual process is complicated by several factors:

1. Different types of plastic typically do not mix together well.

2. Sorting technology can’t always separate different types found in packaging.

3. Contamination from food, metal, paper, etc. makes resulting materials poorer quality.

4. Flexible plastics can’t be handled using typical machinery.

5. Currently, economics do not favor using recycled plastics, since “virgin” plastics are so cheap and have more reliable quality.

Read on to learn more about the type of plastics that can be recycled, how plastics are sorted and recycled, and to understand the items that can be recycled in most common curb-side recycling programs in the United States.