US plastic bag recycling directory site taken down after ‘abysmal failure’ | Plastic bags

A national online recycling guide for plastic bags and films has been taken offline, six months after an investigation by ABC News found that some materials end up in landfills, incinerators and other waste facilities.

The guide previously directed users to about 18,000 store drop-off locations across the country where they could bring used plastic bags and packaging to be recycled, including Walmart and Target locations. The initiative was promoted by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and local and state governments across the country.

In May, ABC News and affiliates used digital tracking devices to monitor plastic waste collected at Walmart and Target stores listed in the directory. Of the 46 trackers placed, the vast majority never ended up at locations associated with plastic bag recycling.

“Plastic film recycling has been an abysmal failure for decades and it’s important that plastics companies stop lying to the public,” said Judith Enck, president of the advocacy group Beyond Plastics. “Finally the truth comes out.”

Plastic is a major contributor to the climate crisis. Made from oil and gas, the material will drive almost half of oil demand growth by mid-century, according to to the US International Energy Agency.

In particular, the production of the materials requires fossil fuel extraction, refining and “cracking”. high heat facilities, and plastic waste often ends up in landfills and waste incinerators. Each step produces planet warming and toxic emissions.

The production and disposal of plastic is already responsible for 3.4% of global greenhouse gas emissionssays the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and that number is planned to rise.

Nina Bellucci Butler, chief executive of Stina Inc, which ran the guide, cited a serious lack of commitment from industry partners in the decision to stop the initiative, as well as poor demand for recycled plastic.

“It’s a fine line between maintaining a credible resource to help people find the best option for common household items that aren’t easy to eliminate … and the possibility of greenwashing,” she wrote in an email.

She said a lack of adequate funding for the project and the plastics recycling sector in general also contributed to the decision to take down the site. The project was initially funded by the American Chemistry Council, a plastics industry lobby group that advocated against many US environmental regulationsbut Butler said it was self-funded for nearly a year before closing last month.

The demise of the guide is indicative of a larger problem in the plastic recycling sector. Of the 51 million tons of plastic waste generated by US households in 2021, only 2.4 million tons – or 5% – were recycled, a Greenpeace report found last year.

A major obstacle: plastic materials are expensive to collect and sort. There is thousands of different kinds of the material, and none of them can be fused together. Even plastics of the same category often cannot be recycled together – bottles colored green or blue, for example, cannot be processed with clear bottles made from the same type of plastic, and few facilities have the capacity to sort so many different materials, the Greenpeace report found.

Business interests have long insisted that plastic recycling can still be improved report after report shows that recycling does not curb the problem.

Plastic waste is also a major contributor to land and marine pollution, and can leach poisons in the environment.

Experts say plastic production must be curbed in an effort to curb toxic and planet-warming pollution. And Enck, who is also a former regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said that rather than relying on plastic recycling programs, “it’s better that people switch to reusable bags”.

Butler said Stina also encourages the public to recycle plastic goods with the Trex Company, which still operates a recycling program with retailers. But ultimately, she said, she hopes the decision to end the program “results in more support for recyclers”.

“It is past time to rethink business as usual,” she said.

Last month, world leaders met in Kenya to negotiate plan to tackle the plastic pollution crisis. And at the international climate talks known as Cop28 in the UAE this week, Inger Andersen, the executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, urged nations and plastic producers to change their behaviour.

“The world is ready to break its addiction to both fossil fuels and plastic,” she said said.