- It seems like every time I read the news there's a new article about the failure of our recycling system. As someone who makes
videos about sustainability for a living, and followed my recycling to a sorting facility, even I'm starting to have
doubts about recycling. Is this really true? Is recycling beyond hope? And what about those plastic numbers? Why can I never get them straight? On this week's episode, I wanna know. Is recycling still worth it? To find out, I'll connect with experts with different perspectives
on our recycling system. - The reality is, is that the
United States does not have the proper waste infrastructure
to actually address all of that recycling waste. And so they end up exporting it to the countries in the global south. - To be clear, you know,
for good quality recyclables there is demand. We've had a good, strong domestic market that was paper mills, things like aluminum or glass are always domestic. - We need to think
beyond plastic recycling. Because plastic recycling is greenwashing. - And I'll finally get down to the truth on those pesky plastic recycling numbers. - If you see the numbers
three through seven on the bottom of your container, that is mostly what was going to China. - I'm Lucy Biggers, and
this is "One Small Step." (upbeat music) So here's a little history
on the U.S. recycling system. You know, that blue bin that
gets collected by a truck at the end of your driveway? That's curbside recycling
and it's been around the U.S. for about 30 years. Today, about 60% of American households have curbside recycling. When it started the main
materials getting recycled were paper, metal, and glass. As the decades have gone by, the material makeup of
our waste has shifted. One of the biggest changes has been that our plastic use has doubled, from 17 million tons in 1990
to about 35 million tons today. The rise of different kinds of plastics, which today are labeled
numbers one through seven, created a more complicated waste stream that posed challenges
to our recycling system. All right, hold up,
before we go any further I need to figure out the deal with these plastic recycling numbers. So what I'm gonna do
is sort all the plastic I can find in my apartment and figure out what is numbered what. Let's do it. (playful music) So I've collected all the plastic
containers in my apartment or most of them, and I've sorted them, labels one, two, three,
four, five, six, seven. So these are all
different types of plastic with different recycling rules and accepted in some places,
not accepted in others. Great, not confusing at all. More on these recycling
numbers later in the video. Instead of regulating companies to use more sustainable materials, our federal government failed to act, leaving cities to start
selling their low-grade plastic and paper waste to China. This seemed to work for decades, but in 2017 China had enough of being a U.S. dumping ground, and passed the National Sword, a policy that banned contaminated plastics and other low-grade recycling materials. This law sent shock waves
through our recycling system and spurred some of the first articles claiming our recycling system was broken. In the first few months of 2018, our waste exports to China dropped by 35%. But the exporting didn't stop. - Because they can't
ship it to China anymore, they're shipping into Southeast Asia. - [Lucy] Kristy Drutman is
a climate justice advocate and host of the podcast,
"Brown Girl Green." - They end up doing what's
called a waste transfer to countries in the global south. Countries like the Philippines,
where my family's from. - In 2018, the U.S. was still
shipping hundreds of thousands of shipping containers to other countries. And it's not that these countries had better recycling
infrastructure than us. In fact, it's often worse. But this system allowed cities to wipe their hands of their waste and count these materials as recycled. - What happens is these countries then might not also have the
proper waste infrastructure to address recycling waste. And then they'll end up
burning these plastic items, or having to figure out other
ways to rummage through it and get rid of it. So it ends up releasing
a lot of toxic gases. A lot of these communities
are exposed to the chemicals from these toxic fumes and
they end up just having to deal with this really monumental
problem of other country's waste because the countries
where this waste originated are not actually properly dealing
with the waste themselves. - In 2020, the U.S. exported 1.37 billion pounds of plastic
waste to other countries, down from 4.7 billion pounds in 2016. But countries like Malaysia
saw plastic scrap imports increase by hundreds
of millions of pounds. There is some good news, in 2019, over 180 countries joined together under the Basel Convention
to create a global ban on the import of low-grade plastics. But the United States has
yet to ratify the ban. As someone who has
tried my best to recycle over over my adult life, it's
so frustrating to hear that because our best intentions,
when we're making a choice about putting something into the blue bin is then leading to
these downstream impacts that I don't think any
of us would support. Should I feel bad that I've been recycling and like knowing that
my waste might've been playing into this unequal system? - I don't think you should
feel bad that you're recycling because at the end of the day, if the U.S. actually had
proper waste management and the actual infrastructure
to address recycling in the way that's necessary, then you'd already be ahead of the game in terms of having a very helpful habit. And at the end of the
day, we have to address plastic as a source, how it's produced. And so you as a consumer
recycling your bottle, you just need to know that
you're not doing anything bad by doing that, but that
you're a part of this really big global system that's really complicated right now, that the U.S. has chosen
to participate in, to not properly address their waste. - So, what will it take for
our recycling infrastructure to get to a place where we can handle our waste without exporting? I reached out to Cole Rosengren, senior editor of the waste and
recycling website Wastedive, to find out. It seems like we have a huge supply of kind of contaminated
recyclables that nobody, and there's no demand, so
there's nowhere for them to go. - True, especially for
stuff that is contaminated, no one really wants it. And there's a lotta
technology that's happening to try to sort that out
and to get cleaner streams. A lot of what is
considered mixed plastics, which to us if you see the
numbers three through seven on the bottom of your container, that is mostly what was going to China. Numbers one and two,
which are a bigger part of the waste stream in terms
of volume and more common, that is largely handled domestically. That was not affected as much. - Hold up, so Cole said,
that three through seven have been getting shipped to China. So that means everything from here over, these containers would
be the types of plastic that were getting shipped overseas, and now don't really have a local market. It's frustrating as a consumer
to know that these materials would not be accepted by most
curbside recycling in the U.S. I will say though, that most
of the plastic I did find was ones and twos, which is
a little bit encouraging. A lot of cleaning containers, food ware, I think two was the most
popular item that I did find. So to know that these are
getting recycled domestically does make me feel a little better. But the fact that here and over
was getting shipped to China and now doesn't really
have a local market, or it doesn't have a domestic
market now, frustrates me. - And to be clear for
good quality recyclables there is demand throughout and still is. We've had a good, strong domestic market that was paper mills,
and plastics facilities, and things like aluminum and
glass are always domestic. A lot of this stuff is staying
local and things are moving, but certain streams just it's
hard to make it worthwhile to clean it up. Even when there's education,
folks are still puttin' things that maybe don't go in
the bin for whatever reasons or they're confused and the technology just
can't always handle it. - So individual error is an issue, but educating the public is so hard. That's because our recycling
programs are run locally, which means the rules change
from one town to the next. For example, where I live in New York they built the high tech
recycling facility in 2013. Better technology allows
New York residents to recycle a wider selection of materials. - Check for your local
guidelines where possible, just to make sure that, and the list can change sometimes too. You may be surprised
all of a sudden X thing is not considered acceptable
anymore, for various reasons, and it's hard to keep up. Usually, it can be expected to
be recycled, plastic bottles, aluminum cans, glass
bottles in most places, not all places, cardboard, and most paper, you should be reasonably
expected to get recycled when you put it in the bin. - So recycling paper,
aluminum, cardboard, glass, and plastics one and two are
still a good call in the U.S. But it's so frustrating
that these plastics three through seven
aren't getting recycled. That's why many people are saying we need to rethink plastic all together. Judith Enck is the president
of Beyond Plastics. Before she started the non-profit to tackle plastic pollution, she was an EPA regional administrator during the Obama administration. - The plastic pollution issue merges so many of the issues I've
worked on my whole career, environmental justice, water
quality, climate change, protecting fish and wildlife, and equity. - Beyond Plastic supports the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act that was recently introduced in Congress. The bill aims to stem the
flow of plastic production by regulating the plastics industry and banning certain single use plastics. If passed, it could
fix a lot of the issues facing our recycling system. For one, the bill prevents plastic waste from being exported to other countries. It also includes national standardization of recycling labels and the expansion of 10-cent bottle deposits that already exist in nine states. I did a video on the benefit
of bottle deposit laws that you can watch here. When we look at recycling,
what is it with plastic versus some of these other materials that you say are okay to recycle? - Well, the other materials
achieve a high recycling rate and they lend themselves to recycling. So an old newspaper can be
recycled into a new newspaper. Same thing with an aluminum can. With plastics there are so many
different types of plastics and they have toxic additives. So you also worry about
repeating the circle of poison if you're recycling material that has toxic chemicals in them. And they rarely, sometimes they do, but they rarely get
recycled into the same item, like bottles to bottles. They're usually recycled
bottles into carpet, yeah, it's down cycled. The plastics industry knows this. But they keep putting out
more complicated plastics. Plastic recycling is a dead end and we should just be honest and recognize that we have to
stop buying so much plastic. - The bill already has 100 co-sponsors and Judith says that grassroots support will be key to seeing it passed. - So the way this bill will become law is with massive grassroots education, mobilization, and support. And what's great is anyone
can pick up the phone and call their member of the
House of Representatives. or call one of their two U.S. senators. And I'm hopeful, because the
problem of plastic pollution just keeps getting worse, and we need to change the
course that we are on. The petrochemical industry has grand plans to produce a lot more plastic and scientists tell us that unless we get new laws on the books or new
policies to reduce plastic, by 2050 for every pound
of fish in the ocean, they are projecting there'll
be one pound of plastic. And that is just unconscionable. And the only way you
change that status quo is by passing strong laws like the Break Free From
Plastic Pollution Act. - So, federal action could
transform our recycling system, but if consumers don't have
access, it won't even matter. Considering all the
articles that are written about our recycling apocalypse, my assumption was that recycling sites are dropping like flies. In doing research for this video, I learned that about 100
recycling programs have shutdown. 14 of those directly
related to the pandemic. I decided to look up the populations of those 100 cities and towns, and by my estimate,
about 2.9 million people, or 1.2 million households, have lost curbside recycling since 2018. That sounds like a lot,
but 1.2 million households is less than 2% of the
69 million households that have curbside recycling. So yes, recycling programs have shutdown, but more than half of American households are still served by a recycling program. So, is recycling still worth it? Well, yes, but honestly, the
recycling system is broken. I believe that we need federal
standardization of rules and increased regulation
of our waste exports. Also, investment in
domestic recycling is vital. And research has shown
doubling our recycling capacity could create 370,000 jobs. So here's what you can do. Keep recycling, but check your local rules and stick to the materials
that actually get recycled, aluminum, glass, plastics one
and two, paper, and cardboard. Next time you're buying
something at the store, you can even look to make sure that the plastic you're
getting is a one or two. It's not perfect, but it's a start. If you wanna support the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act, visit beyondplastics.org. Recycling will not be fixed until we get better laws on the books. That is all for this episode. Let me know in the comments how would you like to see
our recycling system change? (upbeat music)
