You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Just 5% of Plastic Products Recycled in U.S.

HeadlineOct 26, 2022

A new Greenpeace report finds only about 5% of all plastic products are recycled in the U.S., with the rest ending up in landfills. In fact, no plastic packaging in the U.S. meets the threshold to be called “recyclable,” according to one well-known standard. Greenpeace said, “it is time to accept that plastic recycling is a failed concept.” The group says more viable alternatives, such as reuse and refill systems, must be quickly scaled up, adding, “companies can no longer use recycling as a smokescreen to divert attention from the systemic changes that are needed.”

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top