WEBVTT - Have We Hit Peak Recycling?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogue bomb here. In the nineteen seventies, Americans first

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<v Speaker 1>started embracing a new idea intended to help protect the

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<v Speaker 1>environment and reduce our squandering of natural resources. Instead of

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<v Speaker 1>just throwing their garbage away, people began separating materials such

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<v Speaker 1>as glass, metal, and paper that potentially could be processed

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<v Speaker 1>and reused, and started leaving them by the curbside in

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<v Speaker 1>bins to be collected and transported to recycling plants. Back then,

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<v Speaker 1>recycling seemed like a revolutionary step toward a less wasteful society.

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<v Speaker 1>But not quite half a century later, that revolution seems

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<v Speaker 1>to be stuck in neutral, which leaves us wondering whether

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<v Speaker 1>there is a peak recycling point and whether we may

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<v Speaker 1>have already reached it. Thanks to population growth, we continue

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<v Speaker 1>to generate an ever increasing amount of trash, two hundred

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<v Speaker 1>and sixty two million tons of it in the US

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<v Speaker 1>loan in the most recent year for which the Environmental

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<v Speaker 1>Protection Agency has data. That's up from two hundred and

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<v Speaker 1>eight million tons in nineteen ninety, and it works out

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<v Speaker 1>to about four point five pounds or around two kilograms

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<v Speaker 1>per American each day. Over thirty percent more trash than

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<v Speaker 1>Americans generated individually back in nineteen seventy. Of that mountain

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<v Speaker 1>of refuse, in fifteen, slightly more than a third was

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<v Speaker 1>either recycled sixty eight million tons or composted twenty three

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<v Speaker 1>million tons. That might seem pretty impressive, but it's not.

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<v Speaker 1>As of seventeen, the US ranked just twenty five among

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<v Speaker 1>the world's industrialized nations in recycling. Germany, in contrast, recycles

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<v Speaker 1>or composts about two thirds of its garbage, and ten

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<v Speaker 1>other countries in Europe and Asia achieve a fifty percent

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<v Speaker 1>rate or higher. Even more troublingly, U s recycling rates

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<v Speaker 1>have pretty much stalled in recent years. As a result,

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<v Speaker 1>we're still burying more than half of the trash we

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<v Speaker 1>generated landfills and burning the remainder. One challenge to recyclers

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<v Speaker 1>is that the waste stream has evolved. In prior times,

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<v Speaker 1>there were more glass bottles and aluminum cans, plus a

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<v Speaker 1>lot more discarded newspaper, which was heavy and accounted for

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of the volume. These days, in contrast, recyclers

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<v Speaker 1>have to deal with more plastic bottles and e commerce packaging,

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<v Speaker 1>as well as a new generation of complex materials that

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<v Speaker 1>are more difficult to process, metal cans made with blends

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<v Speaker 1>of metals that would have to be extracted from one another,

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<v Speaker 1>and cans and paper products that are coded in plastic.

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<v Speaker 1>Both the base and the coating are technically recyclable, but

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<v Speaker 1>separating them is tricky, and tricky means expensive. Also, although

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<v Speaker 1>what we're discarding has changed rapidly, it's not so easy

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<v Speaker 1>for recycling plants to adjust. These are costly facilities that

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<v Speaker 1>were built to handle the old mix of trash. New

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<v Speaker 1>equipment could cost millions. While the typical person who puts

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<v Speaker 1>bottles in cardboard packaging in the curbside been for pickup

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<v Speaker 1>may think of it as just another government service, recycling

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<v Speaker 1>actually is an industry that has to generate income to

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<v Speaker 1>be sustainable. Bowl sure, they're technically selling your stuff, but

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<v Speaker 1>they have to pay for drivers, trucks, insurance, the facility,

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<v Speaker 1>the equipment to sort it, and shipping to the processor

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<v Speaker 1>that will actually break it down and sell the material.

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<v Speaker 1>And it's a volatile market. Recently, the industry was thrown

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<v Speaker 1>into disarray by China's decision to stop importing twenty four

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<v Speaker 1>categories of recycled materials, including plastic and paper from the

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<v Speaker 1>US and other countries. The ban is causing materials to

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<v Speaker 1>pile up without buyers at sorting centers across the United States,

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<v Speaker 1>forcing many communities to either bury them in landfills or

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<v Speaker 1>burn them. Even where China is still willing to accept recyclables,

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<v Speaker 1>they insist on materials with extremely low contamination rates. That's

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<v Speaker 1>a big problem for the U S, where many communities,

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<v Speaker 1>in an effort to encourage recycling, no longer require residents

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<v Speaker 1>to separate and clean recyclable materials. As a result, about

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<v Speaker 1>of recyclables collected turn out to be contaminated and unusable.

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<v Speaker 1>A stuff like food waste stuck in con hainters can

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<v Speaker 1>be too difficult to clean, meaning that the recycling plant

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<v Speaker 1>may wind up sorting these containers out and throwing them away.

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<v Speaker 1>But there are potential solutions to the problems that are

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<v Speaker 1>hindering recycling. Makers of packaging could help, for example, by

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<v Speaker 1>thinking more about the reality that the stuff has to

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<v Speaker 1>go somewhere at the end of its brief useful life

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<v Speaker 1>and designing it to be more easily broken down and recycled,

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<v Speaker 1>and US manufacturers of products could strive harder to find

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<v Speaker 1>new and innovative uses for recycled materials that can be

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<v Speaker 1>reused multiple times, what the US Environmental Protection Agency calls

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<v Speaker 1>sustainable materials management that would improve the market for recyclables. Additionally,

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<v Speaker 1>nearly fifty years after the recycling movement began, there are

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<v Speaker 1>still places across the US, most notably Indianapolis, that still

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<v Speaker 1>haven't even started curbside recycling programs. That suggests there's still

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<v Speaker 1>potential for growth. Today's episode was written by Patrick J.

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<v Speaker 1>Keiger and produced by Tyler Clang for iHeartMedia and How

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff Works. For more on this and lots of other topics,

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<v Speaker 1>visit our home planet, how stuff works dot com.