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The facade of plastic recycling

A short academic paper i've decided to post here

When people recycle plastic they have their own reasons for doing so whether it be habit, eco conciousness, or other reasons of their own. In the general sense, it is societally accepted as the right thing to do and a way of saving the environment. However, the truth about recycling is much darker…
The plastic doesn’t actually get recycled. At least, most of the time. 9% of plastic is actually recycled. As for the rest, it ends up in the various landfills that humans have scattered across the planet. (United Nations Development Programme, 2023)

The contamination problem

Interestingly, when plastic is recycled, it isn’t always actually recycled. A huge problem in the process of recycling is contamination. Contaminants include food, plastic bags &wrappers, paper towels and napkins, and anything smaller than 3 inches wide. An example of the problem being faced is modern sorting equipment still does not have the capacity to tell the difference between a plastic plate covered in food and a clean plastic plate and this residue can ruin an entire load of recycling. This causes all of that to be discarded into a landfill.  (UW Recycling, 2024)

Different plastics

Not only is there a contamination problem, there is actually thousands of plastics to sort, which is practically near impossible to entirely accomplish correctly and it is required to do so because none of those plastics can be melted together. Plastic is a product of oil and gas, two substances known for being of harm to the environment in more than one way. Taking a blind guess about that, possibly not one of the best ingredients to produce in mass amounts.
The process of trying to recycle plastic is extremely expensive, but creating new plastic items is extremely cheap. This leads to a obvious problem, more new plastic production.  (Sullivan L, 2022)

Reducing consumption

Although people are told to recycle, reuse, and refill, the thing that gets missed is “reduce”. The EPA says that reducing your consumption is the best way to take care of the planet, above recycling and refilling. This is because the process of recycling is not effective and therefore not enough, leaving reusing and reducing left.
There is an extremely harmful bias towards recycling according to research by Nature Sustainability. Reduce, reuse, and recycle are ordered the way they are out of importance, not way of sound. Across two surveys they found that most people thought recycling was the best way to reduce waste out of the 3. The conclusion was that the best option is to motivate people to reduce consumption and reuse more.  (Nature Sustainability, 2023)

Offshoring waste

In many cases, waste is transported, at the expense of the recieving country, to developing countries or China (before 2018) to be sent to landfills there under the label of “recycling” which is effectively greenwashing. In 2018 China stopped importing waste, causing the United States to need to export this waste to Asia. This caused over 200 illegal garbage dumping operations in Malaysia. Malaysia’s environment minister explains that “Garbage is traded under the pretext of recycling”. The process of offshoring this waste emits harmful greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane which is harmful to the planet and the future of the human race by making climate change significantly worse. The U.S. exported 276,200 shipping containers (1.5 million metric tons) of plastic waste to countries with poor waste management in 2017. That is a significant amount of waste going to places that cannot process it, not like it can be processed anyway. (Dell, Jan, 2020)

The industry.

Why was recycling invented? It’s easy. Plastic companies make money off of generating more plastic, so to keep plastic production going they sell the lie of recycling to reduce public fear of plastic’s harms. Plastic producing companies have been aware for 30 years that recycling is not a valid option for reducing plastic waste. Industry insiders have remarked that this process “cannot go on indefinitely” and plastic producing companies may have broken laws regarding misleading marketing and pollution. In fact plastic producing companies WANT more waste. The more plastic that is disposed of, the more the companies are able to make money. At industry conference in 1956 told plastic producers to focus on “low cost, big volume”. In other words, continue making cheap plastic and make as much of it as possible.  (Dharna Noor, 2024)

Not that many

Only a small amount of players in the global economy are most directly responsible for plastic production. Twenty is the amount, with Exxon Mobil leading the stats. Chemical companies are mainly responsible for the promotion and production of plastics. As stated earlier, the business model of “low cost, big volume”! which is a valuable business model for these companies. The immense power behind these large corporations has allowed them to influence waste management and create the myth of “recycling” (Michael Corkery, 2021)

Conclusion

Plastic recycling is practically impossible and promoting it is a form of greenwashing. When you recycle something, you are effectively sending it to a landfill. The only feasible option is to reduce and reuse as much as possible. Consumers need to be educated on where their waste actually goes and corporations need to be punished for their harm and misinformation which has been a detriment to humans and the planet.  
 

References

United Nations Development Programme, (2023, Nov 28), Why aren’t we recycling more plastic? URL
Sullivan, L. (2022, October 24). Recycling plastic is practically impossible — and the problem is getting worse. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2022/10/24/1131131088/recycling-plastic-is-practically-impossible-and-the-problem-is-getting-worse
UW Recycling. (2024, August 26). What is recycling contamination? In Our Nature. https://sustainability.uw.edu/blog/recycling-contamination
United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2025, May 14). Recycling Basics and Benefits. Www.Epa.Gov; EPA. https://www.epa.gov/recycle/recycling-basics-and-benefits
Dell, J. (2020, April 7). No “Away”: Why is the U.S. Still Offshoring Plastic Waste Around the World? Plastic Pollution Coalition. https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/blog/2020/4/7/why-is-the-us-still-offshoring-post-consumer-plastic-waste-around-the-world
Noor, D. (2024, February 15). ‘They lied’: plastics producers deceived public about recycling, report reveals. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/15/recycling-plastics-producers-report
Corkery, M., & Sengupta, S. (2021, May 18). Here Is Who’s Behind the Global Surge in Single-Use Plastic. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/18/climate/single-use-plastic.html