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Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2021

Have decades of industry-backed recycling efforts led to a decline in plastic waste?

Gus Fisher, Gigafact
no

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported that Americans sent 27 million tons of plastic to landfill in 2018, nine times the amount in 1970. Recycling efforts, kicked off in the early 1970s and sustained since by promotion from packaging makers and their customers, have not kept up with continuing use of plastics.

Public awareness of recycling dates back to a celebrated 1971 “Crying Indian” TV commercial, funded by a group called Keep America Beautiful. The group, founded in 1951, today counts many major food, beverage and packaging producers among its members, many of whom also back the nonprofit Recycling Partnership.

The limits to recycling, advocates say, suggest that only reducing the materials’ widespread use can significantly mitigate plastic pollution. Less than 9% of plastics were recycled in 2018, up from 8% in 2010 and about 6% in 2000, the EPA reports.

Sources

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