First is an investment in recycling infrastructure. With more investment, recycling facilities can sort and utilize a wider variety of plastic more effectively.
Plastic recyclers have the capacity to process far more material than they take in today. When their systems are unable to handle the quantity and quality of collected materials economically, that material ends up in a landfill, starving existing processing capacity and adding to citizen expense. Investments in technology through partnerships with local and regional governments, as well as the federal government, are needed to process more volume, more efficiently. Put simply, the better developed our recycling infrastructure, the less plastic ends up in landfills, with more directed toward reuse — which leads to the second factor.
Increasing the amount of plastic that is recycled also takes greater commitment from big brands to incorporate more recycled material in their products.
Plastic recycling is an essential part of an effective circular economy. Once recovered at households and businesses and then sorted at facilities, plastic is processed into a usable raw material called "postconsumer resin" and sold to companies that have committed to make products with recycled material. This already happens in high volumes in the U.S. With an added boost from consumers demanding more from their favorite brands, far more recycled material can be made available and turned into new packaging.
The first half of the plastics lifecycle chain — the household-level sorting for transfer to local facilities — captures much of the public's attention. The second part, products made from recycled plastic, is just as important.
