Since China stopped accepting mountains of our trash in 2018, it’s become clear that most of our waste is not recycled and “reduce, reuse and refuse.” is the necessary mantra for consumers and policymakers. See The Atlantic: Is this the End of recycling?
“…recycled plastic costs pennies more than new plastic, and those pennies add up when you’re manufacturing millions of items. Items made of different types of plastic nearly always end up in the trash, because recyclers can’t separate the plastics from one another—Reed equates it with trying to get the sugar and eggs out of a cake after you’ve baked it. But because companies don’t bear the costs of disposal, they have no incentive to manufacture products out of material that will be easier to recycle.
The best way to fix recycling is probably persuading people to buy less stuff, which would also have the benefit of reducing some of the upstream waste created when products are made.”
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