Plastic Recycling Facts and Figures

Source: https://www.thebalance.com
Although plastic polymers require greater processing as compared to many other
recyclables, plastic recycling has become an increasingly important sector of
recycling.
Lets have a look on some of the useful and exciting facts about plastic recycling:
1. It takes up to 500 years to decompose plastic items in landfills.
2. In 2013, ISRI estimates that 3.5 million tons of postindustrial and
postconsumer plastic were recycled in the U.S.
3. The recycling rate for plastic bottles in the United States reached 31.2 percent
in 2013, up from 19.6 percent in 2003.
4. The percentage of plastic wastes in the municipal solid waste stream in the
U.S. increased to 12 percent in 2008 from less than 1 percent in 1960. In
2008, the total amount of plastic waste in the U.S. was approximately 30
million tons, including 13 million tons of plastic packaging, and containers, 11
million tons of durable plastic products and the remaining 6 million tons
categorized as nondurable plastic items.
5. The recycling rate of various plastic items such as plastic bags, bottles is
slight. According to EPA reports, 2.1 million tons plastic waste was recycled in
2008. This number equals to 6.8 percent of total plastic waste generated in
the U.S. in that year. But the recovery of PET soft drink bottles in 2008 was 37
percent which was much better than that of other plastic containers. In 2008,
only 13.3 percent of plastic packaging was recycled. And currently, 27 percent
of plastic bottles are recycled.
6. In the United States, 2.5 million plastic bottles are used in every hour.
7. Every year, roughly 102.1 billion plastic bags are used by Americans.
8. Every year, 2.4 million tons of PET plastic discarded in the U.S. and 26
percent to 41 percent of this is water bottles.

9. National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) says, in 2011,

there were 5,478 million pounds of PET jars and bottles available for
recycling, but only 29 percent of that was recycled. According to NAPCOR
report, in 2011, 242 million pounds of recycled PET was used for producing
food and beverage containers.
10. According to American Chemistry Council, currently, more than 80 percent
Americans have access to different plastic recycling programs.
11. Over 1,600 business organizations in the U.S. are involved in recycling postconsumer plastic items.
12. It costs approximately $4,000 to recycle one ton of plastic bags. But selling
price of these recycled bags is a couple of times more than the cost.
13. One out of every ten items picked up in an International Coastal Cleanup in
2009 was plastic bags. And this makes plastic bags the second most common
kind of waste item found in that coastal cleanup.
14. The plastic wastes that are thrown away into seas every year can kill as many
as 1,000,000 sea creatures.
15. In the United Kingdom, approximately 15 million plastic bottles are used per
day.
16. Every year, a total of 275,000 tons of plastic products are used in the UK.
17. An average UK family throws away roughly 40kg of plastic per year.
18. In Western Europe, every year, the use of plastic products consumed is
increasing by approximately 4 percent.
19. Each year, about 25 million dollars is spent in the state of California to
dispose of plastic waste in landfills.
20. 1,0002,000 gallons of gasoline can be saved by recycling just one ton of
plastics.
21. Producing

plastic

products

from

recycled

plastics

reduces

energy

requirements by 66 percent.
22. Around 2,000 pounds of oil, the amount of water used by one person in two
months time and two peoples energy consumption for one year can be saved
by recycling just one ton of plastic wastes.
23. Nine out of every ten individuals in a survey said that they would recycle more
if recycling plastics was easier. Many people dont even know that plastic

bottles are made out of oil which can instead be used in gasoline production if
plastic bottles are recycled.
References
http://earth911.com/earth-watch/the-numbers-on-plastics/
http://www.container-recycling.org/index.php/factsstatistics/plastic
http://www.mrcpolymers.com/PlasticRecyclingFacts.php
http://www.recycling-guide.org.uk/facts.html