What do an empty mayo bottle, a lithium-ion battery and the plastic bag your takeout came in all have in common? Not much. But chances are, they’ll land in a recycling bin instead of the trashcan. Recycling in the U.S. is a mashup of varying rules that depend on where you live, and it’s been further complicated by China’s restrictions on importation of our recyclables — not to mention, a global pandemic.
“The China issue really opened our eyes to the fact that we need to recycle right, in order to reduce contamination in the recycling stream,” says David Keeling, president of the National Recycling Coalition, a nonprofit that promotes recycling in the U.S.
According to the EPA, in 2017 — before the restrictions from China — our overall recycling rate was 35.2 percent. In 2020, according to a report by the Recycling Partnership, just over half of Americans have access to curbside recycling programs, but even with more access, some argue that pollution wouldn’t decrease. In 2017, only 8 percent of plastic waste generated was recycled, and 27 percent of glass was recycled, according to the EPA. Add that to an economy that values recycling only certain kinds of materials and confusion around how to recycle correctly, and the obstacles to saving your used stuff from an early grave add up.
