[schlu]

I think they are talking about plastic not recycled or collected in a landfill.

"Only around 1 per cent was left uncollected and leaked into natural environments. Though only a small percentage, this nevertheless represents a significant environmental problem, since the amount of plastic waste is so high overall, and since the natural degradation of plastic is so slow, it accumulates over time."

[mattmaroon]

Ah perhaps. I feel like we can assume the same people who don't put plastic in the recycle bin or trash can today will continue to do so no matter how efficient plastic recycling is.

[schlu]

Fair enough. But if plastic can be recycled more efficiently the price should go up on used plastic, so in theory some people won't just walk past it on the ground.

I admit that is a lot of supposition and pie-in-the-sky thinking though.

[mattmaroon]

Right, so the real problem is that the end consumer doesn't get paid to recycle plastic. We've seen that can/bottle buyback programs (where the user gets a deposit back) work wonders.

You don't get paid because the economics of recycling plastic are bad. You can simply make new plastic for cheaper.

So it is possible that a sufficiently efficient recycling process would lead to greater demand (and thus the willingness to pay) for used plastic, which would lead to more people recycling. That's basically what happens with aluminum.

But, you still find aluminum cans discarded by litterers all the time, because at the end of the day it's only worth a couple cents. And at the end of the day, 50% of those end up in a landfill anyway. So I don't think any amount of recycling tech is going to make too much difference in reducing that.

It might help a lot with ocean plastic though. That's made from fishing nets and (ironically) recycling plastic just dumped into the ocean.