Why Recycling Plastic Matters

For years, the need for recycling has been taught in classrooms and throughout workplaces. Unfortunately, even with this education there are some very surprising facts when it comes to plastics.

Environmental Facts

• It takes up to 500 years to decompose plastic items in landfills

• According to EPA, only 9.5% of plastic material generated in the U.S. Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) stream was recycled in 2014. Another 15% was combusted for energy, while 75.5% was sent to landfills. The landfilled proportion accounted for 18.5% by weight of MSW landfilled.

• The percentage of plastic waste in the municipal solid waste stream in the U.S. increased to 12 percent in 2008 from less than 1 percent in 1960.

• In 2008, the total amount of plastic waste in the U.S. was approximately 30 million tons, including 13 million tons of plastic packaging, and containers, 11 million tons of durable plastic products and the remaining 6 million tons categorized as non-durable plastic items.

We are proud to announce another line of 100% Recycled Plastic Products...Outdoor Furniture!!

By offering additional products made from recycled plastic, we hope to continue to find uses for plastics that would otherwise end up in landfills.

Checkout out our complete line of Outdoor Furniture here.

References

• The ISRI Scrap Yearbook 2016

• Almost No Plastic Bottles Get Recycled Into New Bottles

• The Numbers on Plastics

• Plastic Facts and Statistics

• Recycling Facts and Figures