But there is still more to consider: for example, if a plastic pump includes metal (which almost all do), it cannot be processed. (This is something some brands like Love beauty and the planet approach with new designs.)
“Another little-known fact is that dark plastics – like black, navy blue or dark brown – often cannot be seen by sorters in recycling facilities and therefore end up in landfills,” says Sarah Dearman. , vice-president of circular companies for The recycling partnership. Another problem for sorters: small packaging. According to TerraCycle’s Szaky, nothing smaller than two cubic inches will ever get recycled – that’s just about all caps, lids, and a lot of mini beauty.
Ultimately, recycling is a business. Recycling plants will only recycle what they can recycle for a profit – things like large pieces of clear plastic, clear glass, and aluminum. “The question really isn’t whether something can be recycled, but whether it will be,” Szaky said at a recent sustainability summit.
When plastic is recycled, there are still some captures.
We are by no means suggesting that you give up on trying to recycle the plastic that comes into your life. Even a nine percent recycling rate is a lot of plastic that avoids landfill. In 2018, for example, in the United States alone, 7.9 billion units of rigid plastics were created for beauty and personal care products, according to Euromonitor International.
What is nine percent of that? 711 million units made of rigid plastic. However, plastic is not endlessly reworked – most plastics can only be processed once or twice. Recycling plastic essentially degrades its resulting quality each time it goes through the process – and that means virgin plastic may need to be added to make “recycled” packaging functional.
And, of course, there has to be a demand for post-consumer recycled plastic so that it has everywhere to go. With reports of large amounts of plastic being incinerated or stored due to lack of need, this has been a real problem. However, with the very slow increase in the number of companies working with recycled materials, there is hope for the future.
Very often “biodegradable” plastic … is not.
You may notice a shift towards plastic made from natural sources that are designed to break down faster. “These include materials such as sugar cane, and there are also opportunities to source from other innovative raw materials such as algae and other algae, as well as food waste by-products.” says Olga Kachook, senior manager at GreenBlue, a nonprofit dedicated to the sustainable use of materials.
