Recycling: A System That Needs Fixing
What if I told you that recycling, as it stands today, doesn’t work? The harsh truth is that only a small fraction of what we recycle is actually reused—the majority still ends up in landfills. This failure is largely due to two major issues: contamination and sorting.
Contamination occurs when leftover food or residue remains on recyclable items, making them unusable. Sorting is also a significant challenge because there are so many types of plastic, each requiring different handling.
Let’s be honest—it’s unlikely that everyone will thoroughly wash their recyclables. Instead of expecting perfection, we should focus on upgrading recycling facilities to handle contaminated materials. Modern advancements have made it possible to sort and purify shredded plastic ("regrind") to 98% purity—a level acceptable for reuse in production. However, these machines are expensive and require federal investment to achieve widespread implementation.
A National Recycling Program: To fix the system, we must:
Establish National Recycling Standards: Create consistent, nationwide guidelines for what can be recycled and how facilities process materials to reduce contamination and improve efficiency.
Invest in Advanced Recycling Technology: Provide federal funding to equip facilities with the latest sorting and purification machines, ensuring that recycled materials meet industry standards for reuse.
Public-Private Partnerships: Collaborate with industries to incentivize the use of recycled materials in manufacturing and create a circular economy that reduces waste.
We have the technology, the resources, and the ingenuity to fix our broken recycling system. What we need is the collective will to make the necessary investments. A national recycling program isn’t just an environmental imperative—it’s an economic opportunity to create jobs, reduce landfill waste, and strengthen our domestic supply of reusable materials.
The choice is clear: if we want recycling to work, we must be willing to meet the challenge head-on. Together, we can create a system that truly makes a difference.
