According to a study released by non-profit The Last Beach Cleanup and grassroots organization Beyond Plastics called âThe Real Truth About the US Plastics Recycling Rate,â the rate at which plastic now gets recycled in the United States was an abysmal five to six percent in 2021. The report comes as California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced subpoenas issued to Exxon Mobil as part of an investigation into the petrochemical industryâs deliberate greenwashing.
The most recent data on recycling from the EPA is from 2018, showing a national recycling rate under nine percent. Researchers used data from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) and industry. They calculated 2021âs plastic recycling rate using the EPAâs and NASEMâs methods to calculate an updated number.
Researchers point out that the EPAâs methodology underestimates the recycling rate in several significant ways. For starters, the EPA uses all plastic exported for recycling, regardless of the materialsâ eventuality. Furthermore, the US EPAâs reporting does not consider the loss in the recycling process. Even advanced recycling facilities lose a third of materials recycling PET, such as CarbonLITEâs latest facility and the joint venture between Alpla and Coca-Cola FEMSA.
