Companies whose futures depend on plastic production, including oil and gas giant ExxonMobil, are trying to persuade the federal government to allow them to put the label “recyclable” on bags and other plastic items virtually guaranteed to end up in landfills and incinerators.
They argue that “recyclable” should apply to anything that’s capable of being recycled. And they point to newer technologies that have been able to remake plastic bags into new products.
I spent months investigating one of those technologies, a form of chemical recycling called pyrolysis, only to find that it is largely a mirage. It’s inefficient, dirty and so limited in capacity that no one expects it to process meaningful amounts of plastic waste any time soon.
Only PETE and HDPE are truly recyclable (resin maker 1 and 2 (the “recycle triangle” on the plastic)). Every other plastic is either impossible to recycle from jump, or degrades every time it’s recycled. I don’t think “any new” plastic fits the reality.
Almost any new plastic, by proportion of consumer plastics, mostly virgin PE & PET. As you mention, they degrade per cycle, which is why they end up in landfill regardless of being recycled.