Goodastic — Plastic Resin Codes and Recycling | goodastic.com
9% of about 3 billion tonnes has been recycled, only about 1% more than once, and 79% sits in landfills or in nature.
Of about 3 billion tonnes of plastic waste only 9% has been recycled, and only about 1% more than once. Around 79% of plastic waste has accumulated in landfills or the natural environment, 12% was incinerated and 9% recycled. These four shares describe the same waste stream: recycled, landfilled or in nature, and incinerated.
The recycled-once figure and the recycled-more-than-once figure measure different things. The 9% is everything that has passed through a recycling process at least once; the about 1% is the material that has been recycled a second time. The gap between them is material that was downcycled into a product that is not collected again.
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Europe leads in plastics recycling, reusing about 26%. In the United States only about 8.5% of plastic waste was recycled in 2018. The two figures use different definitions — a regional reuse rate against a national recycled share for a stated year — so they should not be compared as if they were the same measurement.
Program design explains much of the spread. Early United States curbside programs accepted only plastics with codes 1 and 2, which caps the share of the waste stream that can enter the recycling stream. Programs that add code 5, polypropylene, raise their accepted share, but only where a buyer for polypropylene flake exists.
A rate is a snapshot. The 8.5% figure is a 2018 United States measurement; the 26% European figure is a regional reuse rate; the 9% and 79% figures describe the global plastic waste stream. Each carries its own unit and basis, and mixing them without stating the year or the definition produces a number that means nothing.
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