Recycling Is Not a Con, But It Does Need Help Now

A response to the New York Times’ Opinion Video “The Great Recycling Con”

In their recent editorial video The Great Recycling Con, the New York Times suggests that the U.S. municipal practice of recycling — placing waste such as plastic, cardboard, paper, glass and aluminum into those ubiquitous blue bins — is in actuality a myth. As the video accurately states, most plastics (any of those marked with numbers 3 through 7) along with some paper (think glossy) are not recyclable. In fact, only around 9% of all plastics that are disposed of each year are actually recycled.

So, is recycling actually a myth, or a “con” as they suggest? Well, no.

But recycling and those who support it do need help.

At the Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Service at Arizona State University, we have made the overabundance of waste materials in our world a priority, so we have come to know a lot about recycling, or at an even deeper level — waste diversion. We recognize that the idea of recycling is good and that society by-and-large (a.k.a. consumers) views it not only as ‘this is good to do’ but that ‘we should do it’. But, it is not just that it is ‘good’ to do — it has become necessary for our personal health and the health of the economy.

So, if it is better for the health of citizens and a healthy economy, why aren’t corporations and government regulators doing more?

On the one hand, it’s a money issue. As we addressed in a more extensive white paper in October, there is a great innovation opportunity tied to the economic and environmental benefits of recycling despite the ban on plastics by China and others. Whether it’s about potential profits for oil producers and plastics manufacturers or cost savings for product manufacturers (cheap packaging) and municipalities (sorry to say, but landfilling is mostly cheaper than recycling), money drives the abundance of plastics in our world. And, as the Times’ video points out, the Federal regulations controlled by the Federal Trade Commission are confusing and weak at best.

But, recycling is not dead based on the merits of money. As we have shown through our RISN Incubator program in partnership with the City of Phoenix, new innovations around recycling lead to economic development. And, as we discuss in another recent article with our friends at Ubuntoo, “The consumer is voting with their wallet…16.6% of products in the US market that have sustainability claims have contributed to more than 50% of the market growth between 2013 and 2018!”.

If creating jobs and economic growth aren’t reasons enough to justify recycling practices and services, it is also an environmental and health issue. Only 9% of plastics are recycled, meaning that some amount of the 91% that isn’t recycled is leaking into our environmental systems, including our public spaces, our waterways, our oceans and now our air. Microplastic particles are being found not only in far flung places like the Arctic and Lake Tahoe but are now being found in our bodies, as we now are consuming more than 75,000 microplastic particles a year.

As the newly released film Dark Waters explores with its depiction of the landmark case against DuPont and its responsibility of allowing Teflon to leak into the environment, causing area livestock to die and causing cancer in citizens, manufacturers sometimes can and do act without regard to public health.

In terms of microplastics, do they enter our bloodstream? Sink into our gut? Simply pass through our system without doing harm? We don’t quite know yet, but are we really willing to wait for all the science to be done? What if we discover that these microplastics are harmful when we have viable solutions on the table today to reduce these risks? The health of millions of people is at stake.

Just this August, Shell Oil celebrated with great fanfare and a speech by President Trump the opening of a new petrochemical plant in Beaver County, Pennsylvania that will be producing plastics. Is this really needed, especially in terms of fracking natural gas to then burn at high temps to create plastic pellets, a process called cracking? We know the harm this does to the environment, and we have technology today that we can we invest to recycle more plastics that exist in the world instead of creating more from our limited natural resources by means that we know damage our natural environment.

But what can each of us do now?

1) As the Times’ video suggests, DO NOT STOP RECYCLING! There is still a lot of material of value to the recycling process and of value to municipalities and the innovative companies they partner with to create new solutions to this plastics epidemic. Just be sure to understand your municipality’s recycling guidelines — every county, city and town has them, usually clearly explained on their website. But don’t try to recycle things that fall outside of those guidelines as the least little bit of “contamination” can mess up thousands of pounds of recyclable waste.

Encourage everyone around you — your municipal representatives, your co-workers, your families — to think about how to innovate so we can recycle all plastics, not just the 1’s and 2’s.

2) Most people are willing to pay a little for recycling programs — so let your local representative know that! That can make a difference.

3) Push the FTC and your state and Federal representatives to push for stricter, more sensible recycling standards.

4) Support any work looking to more deeply understand the health risks of plastics on humans. If we’re getting sick from this stuff, all the jobs and money in the world will not make it worthwhile.