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| | | | |  | | By Jordan Wolman | | | | | 
Source: The Association of Plastic Recyclers | The pandemic may have been good for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but it wasn't good for plastics recycling. A new report shows overall plastics recycling fell by 5.7 percent in 2020 compared with 2019. That’s a drop of 290 million pounds. The steepest decline came in recycling of food containers and other "non-bottle rigids," which dropped by 16.3 percent. Bottles and other plastics also fell. Film collection recycling, by contrast, was the sector with the largest increase compared with 2019, increasing by less than 1 percent. The Association of Plastic Recyclers, which released the report, has ideas for how to reverse the trend. The group said the recycling industry needs more supply, less confusion with labeling and better-designed products to reduce contamination. APR is a group of plastics and packaging manufacturers and users, including companies such as 3M Co., Costco Wholesale Corp., DuPont de Nemours Inc. and the Coca Cola Co. The Recycling Partnership, which includes major companies such as Target Corp., PepsiCo. and General Mills Inc., estimates that 40 million American households lack “equitable recycling access.”
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Source: The Association of Plastic Recyclers | The report also highlighted a trend toward U.S.-sourced plastics being recovered within North America. In 2020, 92 percent of post-consumer plastic sourced in the U.S. – including more than 95 percent of all bottles – was recovered in North America for recycling. A decade earlier, about 6 in 10 of plastics sourced in the U.S. were recycled here – with 39 percent exported overseas. Plastic recovery is important because the material is difficult to break down and can cause harm when it enters waterways and accumulates in animals and plants that we then consume. Less than 10 percent of plastic is recycled worldwide, according to the United Nations, and the EPA found that U.S. plastics recycling numbers are no better.
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Source: The Association of Plastic Recyclers | The new look at America’s declining recycling rates comes as California’s top law enforcer looks to point fingers at who may be responsible for the pollution. Attorney General Rob Bonta said last week that he is investigating fossil fuel and petrochemical companies “for their role in causing and exacerbating the global plastics pollution crisis,” citing “historic and ongoing efforts to deceive the public.” He said he is trying to determine whether any of these alleged actions violated state law. Bonta issued a subpoena to ExxonMobil Corp. as part of the investigation. Meanwhile, more plastic may be coming. The American Chemistry Council said last year that companies are planning to invest a total of $208 billion across 351 chemical projects.
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| | | — Historic Colonial Jamestown, Va., is now listed as endangered due to threats posed from rising sea levels and flooding. — Corporate America isn’t saying much in the wake of the Supreme Court’s draft abortion ruling, the Financial Times reports. — E-bikes are hitting New York, with the potential to transform America’s largest city’s transportation, Bloomberg reports. — The Wall Street Journal reports that Volkswagen is looking at increased EV investment in North America.
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