Plastics Industry Association survey shows support for mechanical, advanced recycling methods

The Plastics Industry Association (Plastics), Washington, has released a survey that indicates that consumers overwhelmingly support all types of recycling when it comes to plastic products or packaging that should be considered “recyclable” or made from “recycled material.”

Plastics partnered with RG Strategies for the survey, which was conducted from Feb. 22-28 and surveyed 1,200 Americans. According to the survey, about two-thirds of respondents believe that single-use plastics are important to their quality of life.

In addition, the survey indicated that most Americans see both advanced recycling and mechanical recycling as examples of recycling. According to the survey, 90 percent of Americans care more that plastics don’t end up in trash than the process by which they are recycled. Additional findings of the survey include:

• 87 percent of Americans believe industry and government should do more to support all types of recycling, including advanced recycling;
• 89 percent of Americans say that the label of “recycled content” is appropriate for plastics processed by mechanical recycling or advanced recycling;
• 91 percent of Americans say the label “recyclable” is appropriate for products that could be processed by mechanical recycling or advanced recycling; and
• 82 percent of respondents agree that it is appropriate to label an item as recyclable if a product can be recycled.

Survey participants also recognized the value of “mass balance” accounting practices that are used to track attributes of sustainable feedstocks, such as amount of recycled content across complex supply chains. The survey indicates that 67 percent of Americans consider mass balance-certified plastics to be better or the same as other recycled content, while only 14 percent of survey participants disagree with this.

Plastics says it plans to submit these survey findings to the Federal Trade Commission, which is accepting comments on potential changes to its Green Guides, which are intended to provide guidance on how consumers interpret environmental marketing claims.

“Our goal is to build a more circular economy, and that means enabling consumers to easily find and purchase products and packaging that are designed to be recycled or made from recycled content,” Plastics President and CEO Matt Seaholm says. “Consumers don’t discriminate against technologies like advanced recycling which enable them to recycle more of the plastic products they use. They want labels or branding to be simple and consistent and are more focused on keeping plastics in a recycling bin and out of the landfill.”