Issues > March/April 2001 (#88-89) > 7 Misconceptions About Plastics and Plastic Recycling

7 Misconceptions About Plastics and Plastic Recycling

• Misconception #1: Plastics that go into a curbside recycling bin get recycled.
  
  Not necessarily. Not all plastics are recycled. Local municipalities have different laws for what they collect (check with your local city government). Generally, #1 (PETE) and #2 (HDPE) are most often collected and recycled. However, most recovered plastic containers aren't recycled into containers, but rather made into textiles, parking lot bumpers, or plastic lumber - all unrecyclable products. This does not reduce the use of virgin materials (petrochemicals) in plastic packaging.

• Misconception #2: Curbside collection will reduce the amount of plastic landfilled.
  
  Not necessarily. Since most plastic reprocessing leads to secondary products that are not themselves recycled, this material is only temporarily diverted from landfills. Furthermore, if collecting plastic for recycling makes it seem more environmentally-friendly, people may feel comfortable buying more of it (and therefore increase the production of virgin resin)!

• Misconception #3: A chasing arrows symbol means a plastic container is recyclable.
  
  The arrows are meaningless! The useful information is the number inside the arrows, or the letters underneath, which indicate the general class of plastic, or resin, used to make the container. Since different resins cannot be reprocessed together, collected batches must be sorted, which is labor-intensive and time-consuming. Batches are easily contaminated, and if so, become "residue," a new category of waste!

• Misconception #4: Plastic packaging is made from petroleum refineries' waste.
  
  False. Plastic resins are made from non-renewable natural resources that could be used for a variety of other applications or conserved.

• Misconception #5: Plastic recyclers pay to advertise plastics' recyclability.
  
  No; virgin resin producers pay for the bulk of these ads. They are aimed at removing or diminishing virgin plastic's greatest challenge to market expansion: negative (and correct) public impressions of plastic as unrecyclable, environmentally harmful, and a major component of wastes that must be landfilled or burned. In addition, the virgin plastics industry has historically opposed recycled-content legislation!

• Misconception #6: Using plastic containers conserves energy.
  
  False. The manufacture of plastic containers (including the process of synthesizing the plastic resin) uses as much energy as making glass containers from virgin materials, and much more energy than making glass containers from recycled materials. Recycling plastic is very expensive, in terms of capital investment and energy use. Although transporting plastic containers over long distances uses less energy than glass would, using refillable containers of any kind conserves the most energy.

• Misconception #7: Our choice is limited to recycling or wasting.
  
  Not true. Source reduction (reducing the demand at the manufacturing or consumer level) is preferable for many types of plastic and isn't difficult (see Solutions).

Adapted from The Report of the Berkeley Plastics Task Force, available at www.ecologycenter.org.