In the US, plastic recycling stops at 5%. “Coca-Cola and other companies are not doing enough”
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The big flop of recycled plastic. In 2021 in the United States just 5% return to live. That is to say that 95% of the 51 million tons of bottles, bags, boxes and packaging used by Americans ended up in landfills, without distinction, or worse still in the oceans and the atmosphere.
The alarm comes from the latest dossier of Greenpeace USA, which does not limit itself to stigmatizing the lack of diligence of citizens. The problem, the environmental association denounces, is upstream. And even if the Americans suddenly changed gears, stopping a laziness that has become almost proverbial, the problem would remain: in the United States, the vast majority of packaging plastics would not meet the criteria that Ellen MacArthur Foundation indicates as basic requirements for recycling: requirements explained in Global Commitmentwhich includes a series of ambitious objectives, in terms of circular economy for plasticsto be achieved by 2025.
But the road, it seems, is uphill. And also the plastics considered recyclable, starting with the widespread ones PET or high density polyethylene bottlesallow one percentage of recycling less than 30%, the minimum threshold for a product, according to the foundation, to be defined as truly recyclable. And in short, there is enough for Greenpeace to focus on a problem still considered underestimated: “For decades, companies such as Coke, PepsiCo, Nestle And Unilever have promoted the recycling of plastics as a solution to plastic waste. – explains the activist Lisa Ramsden – But the data is clear: in practice, most plastics are not recyclable.
The real solution? Pass to reuse and refill systems. Instead of relying on the so-called greenwashing and mislead the American public, the industry should support the ambitious Global Treaty on Plastics that could finally put an end to the era of plastic “.
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What is it about? Of a subscription, still under preparation, which follows the historic resolution agreed in March by the United Nations Assembly for the Environment (Unea) to Nairobiwhen 175 countries unanimously approved a document which commits the Member States to draw up by 2024 a “legally binding international instrument” to “put an end to plastic pollution”. “The document will bind signatories, regulating global policies relating to production, consumption and disposal of plastic products.
A finally drastic measure to put an end to the exponential growth of plastic waste, otherwise destined to triple by 2060, as predicted by the OECD.
“The hope is the next round of negotiations on the Global Plastics Treaty, to be held in Uruguay at the end of the month, it will be the first major global event that pushes to go in this direction, “he says Giuseppe Ungherese, in charge of the Pollution campaign of Greenpeace Italy. “As for the data on the United States, they certify the failure of the plastics recycling system in one of the countries with the highest per capita production rates of plastic waste in the world. – he adds – In Italy, where fortunately there is a more efficient system for the collection and recovery of plastic materials, the numbers are not so alarming. Even with us, however, we cannot be too serene. According to the most recent data released by Corepla – the Italian consortium that recovers and recycles the plastic packaging we separate at home – only about half of the plastics we differentiate are used in new products through the recycling system “. Just 50%, in short. .
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“The failure of this system on a global scale is one of the main problems underlying plastic pollution in the environment. – Hungarian continues – If we analyze the historical data starting from the 1950s, we discover that only the 9% of all plastic produced was recycled. These are numbers that certify a failure “.
And therefore the main solution to the problem, according to Greenpeace, is not recycling, no matter what companies and governments say. “In reality, as documented by numerous international studies and researches, it is necessary instead convinced to abandon the culture of disposable plastic to make a real transition towards the use of packaging that is durable and above all reusable over and over again “, says the manager of the pollution campaign of Greenpeace Italy.
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