Americans' use of plastic boomed during the pandemic, including mountains of single-use items such as takeout containers, plastic bags and, of course, face masks. At the same time, we're recycling less of this waste than in the past, according to a pair of recent studies.
Beyond Plastics and The Last Beach Cleanup recently examined government data from the Environmental Protection Agency and on U.S. exports to come up with a recycling estimate. Theirfound that, similar to the NREL's study, only between 5% and 6% of plastic made in the U.S. is recycled. "In the whole history of plastics recycling, it never ever got to double digits — it never got to 10%," she said. That stands in stark contrast to paper, for which the recycling rate has steadily risen and now stands at about 66%.
"There are thousands of different types of plastics, and they are all different polymers, with different chemical additives and different colorants," Enck said.