The investigation revealed that the industry’s and policymakers’ claims that plastic garbage is valuable because it can be cleaned, separated and recycled were, and still are, lies. Plastic waste is not valuable and it never has been and the industry has known this all along, at least since the early 1970s. Of all plastic produced less than 10 percent has ever been recycled.
toxic material
Plastic Waste: We are the Problem
Worldwide 80% of plastic waste ends up in landfills and the environment. There it multiplies by breaking down into smaller pieces, up to sizes that are measured in microns (1000 microns = 1 mm). All the plastic ever manufactured still exists somewhere on Earth, most of it too small to see. It enters the food chain via packaging, water, agricultural produce and other species we consume, and ends up in us.