Recycled plastic can be more toxic and is no fix for pollution, Greenpeace warns – the Guardian

Plastic Bottles for Recycling (by pingnews.com CC BY-SA 2.0) via Flickr).

“Plastics are inherently incompatible with a circular economy,” the global environmental network said in a report that brings together research showing recycled plastics are more toxic than their virgin constituents.

The report, timed to coincide with the beginning of fresh talks for a potential global plastics treaty, comes as separate research has found breaking down plastics for recycling scatters microplastic pollution into the environment…

The Reality of Recycling Plastic

Plastic (by Mike Carney CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 via Flickr)

Industry makes 380 million tons of plastic every year and none of it is truly recyclable.
Greenpeace has just released a report in October calling out the plastic industry for greenwashing the status of plastic recycling by continuing to employ the familiar “chasing arrows” recycling symbol on their products, when the truth is that recycling plastic has been a near-complete failure…