Plastic PET bottles can take more than 450 years to decompose in landfills. On the surface, recycling is the great savior of our planet’s oceans and ecosystem. Most children graduating grade school in the past 30 years in the United States know about the importance of recycling. From educators to the news, everyone has been promoting plastic recycling as the greatest greenwashing lie without knowing it. As of 2021, of the 51 million tons of plastic generated by US household, just 2.4 million (or 5 percent) was recycled. Let’s track how this happened and the chain of events that ensued.
Consumer Demand
As local municipalities have dramatically increased the effectiveness of their recycling programs, marketers have become more aware of consumers’ increasing environmental concerns. This is amplified by the recycling industry itself, which have gained a large sector of the growing economy. Recycling and reuse industry provides more than 681k jobs and generates more than $37.8 billion in wages as of 2018. Waste Management, the largest US player in the recycling industry grosses mor than $15 billion in annual revenue. Thankfully, most of these companies are publicly traded with public records.
“Recyclable” Products and Big Profits
In the meantime, think about increasing number of corporations pushing “recyclable products” into your daily lives in the past two decades. One popular example is explosive demand of single use k-cups instead of biodegradable coffee filters. Keurig was hit with a class action lawsuit, and in 2022, a federal judge in California has approved a $10 million settlement between Keurig and consumers who argued they were misled into believing the company's single-serving K-Cups were far more recyclable than they were. It is also good to remember that Keurig is only one of many single use coffee pod manufacturers. In 2018 alone, 60 billion coffee pods were produced. Of every 39,000 pods produced every minute, 29,000 actually ended up in landfills. As of Sept 2022, Keurig grossed over $13B with a 9.93% increase year over year performance.
Reality Check and the Chain of Lies
On average the EPA consistently reports less than 10% of total US plastic actually gets recycled annually in the United States. So, then the question becomes what actually happens to the rest of the plastic? An estimated 31% of waste ends up in landfill and the majority is incinerated. During the inception of Clean Brand, our founder interviewed an on-site Waste Management technician in 2020 clarifying the recycling sorting process. Recycling is sorted into various categories and even when perfectly sorted, most plastic can’t be recycled. The onsite technician said most recycled items are washed and cleaned but only a small fraction can be salvaged from a recycling collection. Mixed plastics can cause contamination and the entire bin is often incinerated. These incinerations are touted as “waste-to-energy” plants. It is promoted as sustainable green solution to landfills and alternatives. In 2019, the production and incineration of plastic produced the same amount of greenhouse as 189 500-Megawatt coal power plants. In one study, US EPA calculated that the electricity generated by incarnation produced 1.36 metric tons of CO2 per kWH, while coal-fired generators produced 1.02 metric tons per KWh.
Recycling is a myth that runs long and deep. It started with consumers demanding real solutions to ongoing ecological concerns raised plastic pollution. To ingratiate themselves in public consciousness as eco-conscious and green, many corporations started to push the recycling lie to drive big revenue and profits. The big recycling boom must make sense so waste management companies must pick up the slack. They needed to rebrand their contribution to the recycling process and the greenwashing continues.
The next time you are shopping at your local retailer, remember to not buy into the recycling myth. Avoid single use plastic items—no matter how tempting their recycling pitch is. The answer to the Recycle myth is clear: REUSE & Save $$ and the planet!