U.S. PIRG End of Year Drive

John,

Every 16 hours, Americans throw away enough plastic to fill the country's largest football stadium to the brim.1

There's no doubt about it: The plastic waste problem is huge.

In response, the plastic manufacturing industry has offered its share of supposed solutions to fight plastic waste, but will they work?

Industry misinformation, ineffective recycling, and burning plastic certainly won't solve the pollution problem -- but we know what will.

Will the industry's misleading recycling proposals solve the problem? No

The plastic industry has been making misleading claims about how to solve the planet's pollution problem for a long time.

In fact, we have evidence that plastic producers knew recycling was never going to be sufficient to stop pollution on its own as early as 1986.2

Even decades ago, it was clear that we were producing and using too much plastic. Recycling would never be able to keep up with the rising tide by itself.

But plastic producers continued to promote recycling as a viable way to stop pollution -- and kept selling plastic products to their customers, even though nearly every single piece of plastic was eventually doomed to become waste.

Now we know: More than 90% of plastic is never recycled.3 We can't recycle our way out of this mess. And we won't let the plastic industry think we'll keep falling for their misinformation.

Can recycling alone solve the problem? No

Even if you're diligent about checking each label and sorting items into the right bins, most plastics just aren't made to be recycled.

Even spotting that familiar "chasing arrows" symbol on a piece of plastic is no guarantee that it can actually be recycled.

But that doesn't stop manufacturers from using the "chasing arrows" recycling symbol on materials that have little or no chance of being recycled. As a result, a massive pile of products labeled as "recyclable" aren't actually recycled at all.4

Overall, less than 10% of plastic is ever recycled.5 The rest ends up in landfills or incinerators, littering our environment, or polluting our waterways.

Can chemical recycling solve the problem? No

The plastic industry claims to have a high-tech way to deal with plastic waste. They call it "chemical recycling" -- but really, most so-called chemical recycling facilities are just burning plastic.6

That's not really recycling. It's just more pollution.

The majority of America's chemical recycling plants are "plastics-to-fuel" facilities.7 That means they heat plastic at high temperatures, releasing up to 96 different kinds of harmful air pollutants -- all to create fuel that will be burned again, creating even more pollution.8

When you hear "recycling," you think about materials getting usefully repurposed -- but at plastics-to-fuel facilities, at most only 6% of plastic feedstock can be turned into usable plastic.9

Chemical recycling isn't a solution to the vicious cycle of plastic overproduction and pollution. It's a big part of the problem.

But we know plastic pollution solutions that will really work

If traditional recycling isn't effective, chemical recycling just causes more pollution, and plastic producers are peddling misleading information about their products -- what can we do to actually cut pollution?

It's deceptively simple: We need to stop producing and using so much plastic in the first place.

PIRG's team of researchers and advocates, fuelled by supporters like you, are taking strides toward making a future beyond plastic possible. Together, we're:

  • Phasing out some of the worst forms of single-use plastics. One-third of Americans now live in a state with restrictions on one or more types of single-use plastic.10
  • Calling for truth in recycling labels. We've sent thousands of messages to the Federal Trade Commission, calling for regulations that will ensure products labeled as recyclable are actually recyclable.
  • Convincing major retailers to get wasteful plastic off their shelves. After PIRG investigated the recyclability of Amazon's packaging and rallied more than 130,000 Americans to call for change, Amazon committed to phasing out plastic padded shipping bags and phased out air pillows in US shipments.11, 12

With your support, John our next victory could be just around the corner.

Thank you,

Faye Park
President

P.S. Common-sense, effective solutions to the plastic waste problem are possible -- but we need your help to make them a reality. Will you donate today to support all our work to move our country beyond plastic?

1. "Trash in America," PIRG, September 28, 2021.
2. Dharna Noor, "'They lied': plastics producers deceived public about recycling, report reveals," The Guardian, February 15, 2024.
3. Michael Copley, "Reduce, reuse, redirect outrage: How plastic-makers used recycling as a fig leaf," National Public Radio, February 15, 2024.
4. Amudalat Ajasa, "Why the recycling symbol could end up in the trash bin," The Washington Post, May 18, 2023.
5. Michael Copley, "Reduce, reuse, redirect outrage: How plastic-makers used recycling as a fig leaf," National Public Radio, February 15, 2024.
6. Celeste Meiffren-Swango, James Horrox, Grace Vickers, et al., "'Chemical recycling': What you need to know," PIRG, July 14, 2025.
7. Celeste Meiffren-Swango, James Horrox, Grace Vickers, et al., "'Chemical recycling': What you need to know," PIRG, July 14, 2025.
8. Janet Domenitz and Celeste Meiffren-Swango, "'Chemical recycling': What it is, and what it definitely is not," PIRG, September 18, 2023.
9. Celeste Meiffren-Swango, James Horrox, Grace Vickers, et al., "'Chemical recycling': What you need to know," PIRG, July 14, 2025.
10. "Reducing plastic waste in the states," PIRG, July 26, 2022.
11. Jenn Engstrom, "Statement: Amazon to phase out single-use plastic padded shipping bags," PIRG, July 19, 2023.
12. "Amazon announces its largest reduction in plastic packaging in North America to date," Amazon, June 20, 2024.

Your donation will power our dedicated staff of organizers, policy experts and attorneys who drive all of our campaigns in the public interest, from banning toxic pesticides and moving us beyond plastic, to saving our antibiotics and being your consumer watchdog, to protecting our environment and our democracy. None of our work would be possible without the support of people just like you.


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