Argument for Recycling Is Strong

Recycling is an important and timely topic and a key contributor to a cleaner environment. We were disappointed to see that MSW Management’s recent editorial oversimplified and overlooked many of the important gains that the US recycling industry has made in recent decades. Worse, the editorial may have left readers with a grossly inaccurate view of an industry with solid growth potential. The future of plastics recycling is actually quite bright. Here are the facts:

• The market for recycled plastic materials is strong
• In order to increase recycling, we must work to increase collection opportunities
• The export market is strong for recyclables based on pure economics
• Seventy percent of plastics manufactured in the United States are made from natural gas

Let’s start with markets for recycled materials. In many cases, demand for recycled plastics has outpaced our ability to supply them. For almost 15 years, there have been strong domestic markets to purchase recycled plastics, but the recycling industry has not been able to run at full capacity with limited quantities of collected materials. Today it is clearly the lack of supply of post-consumer plastics that keeps our markets from reaching their full potential.

With the current prices of recycled resins strong but still competitive with the prices of virgin resins, existing domestic markets could easily absorb an increase in supply—if we are able to boost the collection of post-consumer recycled materials. This is why the plastics industry is working aggressively to increase access to away-from-home recycling opportunities, boost municipal recycling of plastic bottles and non-bottle containers, and increase awareness through consumer education.

Despite strong domestic markets, about 50% of recovered PET and 20% of recovered HDPE is exported to China. Why? Simple economics—empty cargo ships headed back to China and a low wage rate make it difficult for domestic recyclers (particularly those on the West coast) to compete for the material. The important thing is that the materials are being purchased at a fair market price and recycled into useful new products.

But the most deeply concerning point in MSW Management’s editorial is the suggestion that post-consumer plastics are exported to avoid the environmental impacts of recycling. The processes of cleaning, melting and filtering post-consumer plastics are generally associated with very low levels of energy, minimal emissions, and tiny amounts of solid waste from labels, dirt, and other non-recoverable components. In fact, the American Chemistry Council, Association of Postconsumer Plastics Recyclers, National Association for PET Container Resources, and the PET Resin Association are currently collaborating to generate life cycle inventory data to quantify these important environmental indicators for the plastics recycling industry. These data will be made publicly available as soon as they are complete.

The editorial also made a significant (but sadly common) mistake regarding energy used to produce plastics in the United States. Your column claims that “it takes about 12 barrels of oil to make one ton of polyethylene.”  Rather, it’s barrels of oil equivalents—and the actual number is 10.2 barrels of oil equivalents. In the United States, 80% of polyethylene (and 70% of plastics overall) is made from domestic natural gas.

Finally, there is the issue of energy recovery, or waste-to-energy (WTE). We believe that MSW Management’s contention that plastics are sold abroad and “put to the torch” bears reconsidering because common sense suggests that in today’s market it is unlikely that someone would pay a premium for recovered resins just to burn them. While these materials do have value as an energy source, that value is enhanced when recovered plastics are manufactured into useful and efficient new products.

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The bottom line is that over the last two decades, plastics recycling has grown by leaps and bounds. Unlike the mixed streams that went straight into asphalt for pennies a pound, today’s recovered plastics are sorted, cleaned, and processed to perform at levels competitive with virgin resins. We have versatile technologies, strong markets, and healthy demand both domestically and abroad. But our work is not finished. If the industry has an Achilles heel, it is collection. In our view, recovery is where we should be focusing our collective energies. 

America’s plastics producers are working to increase away-from-home recycling opportunities; to leverage our investments through creative new partnerships; and to increase the recycling of bottles, bags, rigid plastic containers, and even end-of-life vehicles. And above all, we are working to increase the collection of plastic through greater consumer education and awareness of recycling opportunities. We hope you will join us as we continue this industry’s proud history of innovation by removing the remaining barriers to achieving our true recycling potential. Plastic is too valuable a resource to waste.

Author's Bio: Viewpoint writer Sharon Kneiss is vice president of the products divisions of the American Chemistry Council.