[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.