A Surprising Statistic About Plastic Recycling

Tesla CEO Elon Musk caught a lot of flak last week when he declared, “Recycling is pointless,” but, according to the environmental group Greenpeace, he’s kind of right. (RealClearPolitics)

A 2022 Greenpeace report: Only 5% to 6% of plastic in the U.S. is currently being recycled.

• Shockingly, no type of plastic in the U.S. meets the 30% recycling rate required to be classified as "recyclable" under widely recognized industry standards, per Greenpeace.

• While 52% of U.S. recycling facilities accept plastic cups and containers (marked as "number 5s"), fewer than 5% of these items are actually recycled.

Zoom out: The overall recycling rate in the U.S. sits at 32% of all waste, but not all materials are equal.

• According to the American Forest & Paper Association, the recycling rate for paper is a robust 70%, and even higher for cardboard (93%).

• Meanwhile, nearly half of all aluminum cans end up getting recycled.

The impact: Recycling has gotten more expensive for local governments since a 2018 Chinese law banned imports of most "foreign trash."

• China imported $5.6 billion in U.S. recyclables in 2017, but imports dropped by 99% after the ban.

• According to a 2020 Manhattan Institute report, municipalities now often pay more to dispose of recyclables than regular garbage.

Bubba’s Two Cents

Recycling plastic is a lot like other environmental issues: everyone can get behind the intentions — whether that’s cleaner oceans or saving trees — but the solutions sometimes don’t make sense or fail to consider costs and tradeoffs.