U.S. Plastics Recycling: We effectively only recycle 3 of the 7 resin types

I've graphed the EPA data for recycled amounts of numbered plastics in the U.S. from 2013 - 2017. What is shown here represents about 6-8% of our total plastic usage annually. So, during the years shown, the U.S. used around 30 million tons of plastic, and recycled about 2.4 million tons of it. What actually gets recycled is a murky picture. Since the 1990s (when many people in the U.S. were told to stop sorting their recycling), most plastics have been shipped overseas for processing, mixed, in bulk, and primarily to China. Recycling processors in the U.S. are for the most part only able to process #1s and #2s, and only a few U.S. processors can handle additional resin #s.

What I had really wanted to find was data post-2017. Starting in January of 2018, China enacted National Sword. This policy bans foreign recyclables, and essentially reduces China's appetite for U.S. plastic recyclables down to <1% of exports. Other countries have stepped in to purchase, but the market is volatile, and the amount being sent overseas has fallen. Hopefully the EPA will publish post-2017 data to shed more light on how this is affecting U.S. plastic recycling rates.

For further reading, visit Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: Facts and Figures Report