Many USA municipalities are still falling short of the desired recycling goals.
But this is not just because many people still do not recycle often enough. Another reason is that many recycling industries are facing tough competition from outside sources.
There is a high demand for raw materials from recycling companies both at home in the USA and worldwide. With such tough competition, much of the America’s plastic waste is not reaching the USA Plastics Recycling stream.
The starvation of the USA plastics recycling industry was one of the topics examined in the recent article in the October 15th Issue of the Chemical and Engineering News.
The conclusion that was drawn by the senior editor of Chemical and Engineering News, Alexander H. Tullo was that consumers have, without knowing, put the USA plastics recycling industry on a “starvation diet.” The reason for this is that they are not recycling large enough amounts of soft drinks bottles and other plastic waste materials.
This may be through lack of education, or because other recycling companies from abroad are buying up the waste.
Whereas cities such as San Francisco and New York are meeting their desired targets, many are not. The success of these cities may be attributed to recycling education programs as well as environmental pride amongst consumers.
Tullo points out in his article that around 25% of plastic containers and bottles that are manufactured in the United States, actually enters the recycling stream.
He goes on to say that the future of the recycling industry in the USA rests with the consumers.
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