Recycling: challenges and best practices

Recycling seems simple: put your plastics in the bin and the material will be made into brand new products.

Why, then, do we only recover and recycle ~9% of our waste single-use plastics?

The actual process is complicated by several factors:

Different types of plastic typically do not mix together well.
Sorting technology can’t always separate different types found in packaging.
Contamination from food, metal, paper, etc. makes resulting materials poorer quality.
Flexible plastics can’t be handled using typical machinery.
Currently, economics do not favor using recycled plastics, since “virgin” plastics are so cheap and have more reliable quality.

Read on to learn more about the type of plastics that can be recycled, how plastics are sorted and recycled, and to understand the items that can be recycled in most common curb-side recycling programs in the United States.

Chances are, you've bought a plastic container at some point in your life-and since it had those three little arrows on the bottom, you figured you could recycle it. But those symbols mean a lot more than you think. They tell you what kind of plastic a product is made from, and even how recyclable it is.

Check out REInventors here!: http://youtube.com/pbsreinventors What happens to plastic bottles when you recycle them? Do they get made into fresh bottles, or do they become something else? This week on Reactions, learn why it's easier to turn bottles into workout shirts than it is to fully recycle the plastic. Subscribe!

It's important for everyone to go green and work together in creating a sustainable future. One of the best ways to help save Mother Earth is to recycle. But it's not always easy to tell what can and can't be recycled, especially when it comes to plastic.