Now, this:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/it-s-time-we-confront-the-ugly-truth-about-plastic-recycling/ar-AA1O57Mq?ocid=msedgntp&pc=EDGEDSE&cvid=68ec3ed36b9a4ffc98a5666620282866&ei=40
It's time we confront the ugly truth about plastic recycling
Opinion by Holly Kaufman ~ San Francisco Chronicle
Every week, you probably dump a bag of recyclables into a big blue bin. And you probably feel good that you're sending it off for recycling, including your plastic bottles, milk jugs and berry baskets.
Well, sorry. Most of that plastic waste won't get recycled. It will likely either be flung into a landfill, shipped to a foreign country and heaped onto an already colossal mountain of trash, burned or dumped in the ocean, degrading into smaller and smaller bits, but never going "away."
That's why California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued major plastic producer and recycling myth master ExxonMobil last year, and why he just announced his intention to sue some of their brethren - to unwrap the truth about plastic recycling.
For decades, the plastics industry - i.e., the fossil fuel industry - has misled consumers, claiming that its products are recyclable. But plastic is not like paper, glass and metal. Despite the chasing-arrows symbol printed or stamped on products, most plastics are not recyclable, and only about 5% of plastic waste in the U.S. is recycled. That doesn't include nylon carpeting, spandex yoga pants, polyester hoodies and all the other ubiquitous plastic textiles, virtually none of which are recycled.
Plastics are not a single material like aluminum. There are many kinds of plastics, made for umpteen uses. They each are a complex mix of polymers and chemicals, mostly made from oil and gas. Even for technically recyclable plastics, there is not always a local facility where that can happen.
Unlike glass and metal, which can be recycled hundreds of times, plastics that are recyclable can only be recycled three or four times. Most plastic that is recycled is only recycled once. Plastic recycling merely delays the time until plastic is just waste again.
Plastic recycling also usually requires mixing the used material with virgin plastic, along with even more petrochemicals. And when heated during the recycling process, other toxic chemicals - like brominated dioxins and benzene - that were not intentionally added can end up in the recycled plastics, too.
Mechanical recycling is a pathway for these chemicals to affect human and environmental health. The process involves washing, shredding, grinding, pelletizing and other steps that shed chemical-laden microplastic and nanoplastic particles into the air, water and soil. These itty-bitty flecks have been found everywhere on the planet and in creatures from the tiniest zooplankton to human bodies. Have you heard that we now all have about the weight of a teaspoon of plastic in our brains? [Democrats have a full kilo in their brains 
]
Even most supposedly "Earth-friendly," "biodegradable," "compostable," "plant-based" and "green" plastics are not fully recyclable. Only about 1% of all plastics on the market today are some form of "bio" plastic, and only 1% of that are actually relatively kosher from an environmental and health perspective, though better alternatives are in the pipeline. The compostable bioplastics - as undefined a term as natural - are also usually only compostable in industrial facilities, which not every community has, nor is the compost that results necessarily healthy for soil and plants, including our food.
Another issue with most bioplastics is that they can shed even more of those pernicious microplastics and nanoplastics than regular plastic. These particles also exacerbate climate change, adding to the blanket of pollution warming the world. Plastic production releases prodigious amounts of greenhouse gas emissions: If it were a country, the global plastics industry would be the fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. That does not even account for the greenhouse gas emissions from all the other stages of the plastics lifecycle, including while we're using plastics and once they degrade into those bits and fibers - which we don't count because limited data exist.
Microplastics and nanoplastics can also increase global average temperatures by affecting natural carbon sinks on land and in water, including carbon-absorbing processes in the ocean, and they may alter how the Earth reflects and absorbs energy. For example, the particles appear to be decreasing the albedo (reflectivity) of surfaces such as snow and ice - an effect that leads to more global warming.
So what is a do-good, confused consumer to do? Use as little plastic as possible, reuse and refill it as much as possible - though not for consumables. And make sure the product isn't made with or from fossil fuels and doesn't contain "PLA" or "PFAS" compounds.
The Plastics & Climate Project recently released a report that reviewed the scientific literature on the plastics-climate nexus, identified the data gaps and highlighted the need for more research on plastics' range of climate impacts. What is clear is that we are undercounting plastic's warming effect on our climate. Even if we stopped all plastic production, use, disposal and recycling today, many of these effects would not only continue, they would continue to increase due to shedding.
Owing to the proliferation of renewable energy and electric vehicles, demand for conventional uses of fossil fuels is decreasing, so the fossil fuel industry plans to triple plastic production over the next 30 years.
Recycling doesn't address any of plastic's human and environmental impacts. It's essentially another form of plastic production, one that usually hurts low-income communities more than others. Relying on recycling instead of squarely addressing the overproduction and overuse of plastics would be as flimsy as plastic wrap. So, neighbors, let's encourage other states to follow in our attorney general's footsteps to help support his efforts, and call plastic recycling what it is: hoodwinking.
Holly Kaufman is co-founder and director of the Plastics & Climate Project and is a senior fellow at the World Resources Institute.
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Message Thread
- Otis Campbell October 13, 2025, 1:22 pm
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