NWRA issues white paper to address concerns with recycling plastic

The National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA), Arlington, Virginia, has released a paper called "Dispelling Plastics Recycling Myths.” 

“The goal of this white paper, and all our white papers, is to explain issues facing the waste and recycling industry with facts,” says NWRA President and CEO Darrell Smith. “While water bottles, milk jugs and laundry detergent bottles are commonly recycled, the fact is that not all plastics are recyclable, and this white paper explains the issues surrounding plastics recycling.”  

The paper specifically cites the release of a report in 2022 from Greenpeace that claimed that recycling plastics does not work. It also cites articles written by City Journal, an urban policy magazine based in New York, and NPR that allege recycling plastics is nearly impossible. The association says these articles cause the public to question the value of recycling rather than asking what can improve recycling.  

RELATED: Industry responds to Greenpeace report alleging most plastics are not recyclable

The NWRA says the index pricing for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in 2022 reached as high as $1,000 per ton, and natural high-density polyethylene (HDPE) reached $2,000 per ton. That is higher than the price of steel cans or cardboard. The association argues that waste and recycling companies see this value and continue to invest in the infrastructure to collect these plastics.  

“To recover this material, America’s recycling industry has heavily invested in infrastructure improvements to capture more of it,” the paper states. “Recycling facility operators would not be doing this if they could not make money from recycling.” 

According to the most recent data provided by the EPA in its “Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: Facts and Figures 2018,” 29.1 percent of PET bottles and jars were recycled. Natural HDPE bottles were recycled at 29.3 percent in 2018, and colored HDPE was recycled at 18.1 percent. Overall, 13.6 percent of plastic packaging is recycled.

However, the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) and The Recycling Partnership, both based in Washington, have noted that the EPA's denominator is problematic. In 2022, the APR issued a report, titled “Recommit, Reimagine, Rework Recycling,” that clarifies data provided by the EPA for the discussion on U.S. recycling rates, explaining that 80 percent of rigid plastic packaging is made from either polyethylene terephthalate (PET), high-density polyethylene (HDPE) or polypropylene (PP). According to the APR report, 21 percent of these types of plastic are recycled based on EPA data. However, according to the EPA’s 2018 figures, the latest available, the overall plastic recycling rate was only 9 percent. The APR notes that the EPA’s statistics “include containers, packaging and durable goods meant to last many years as well as nondurable goods not intended for recycling like garbage bags.”

RELATED: APR report provides policy recommendations to improve plastic recycling

Plastics can provide numerous advantages, such as a better greenhouse gas footprint than alternative packaging, according to a report from McKinsey & Co., an international consulting firm. Yet, plastic packaging has created environmental problems for wildlife by showing up in the most remote places on the planet. This emphasizes the need for appropriate end-of-life management for all products, especially plastics, the NWRA white paper concludes.