TIL Only about 9% of plastic ever produced has been recycled.
TIL Only about 9% of plastic ever produced has been recycled.
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that 8% more than i thought
9% is only recycled once, only 1% has been truly reused multiple times, so you're close enough.
Also:
Of the remaining waste, 12% was incinerated and 79% was either sent to landfills or lost to the environment as pollution.
They're the same thing. Incinerated is lost as pollution, it just happened to have one more use on the way there.
And I just realized, this wikipedia page linked is almost 10 years out of date!
Incinerated plastic releases green house gases and some amount of micro plastics in the uncombusted ash.
Landfill plastic seemingly just erodes into micro plastics over long time scales.
And I just realized, this wikipedia page linked is almost 10 years out of date!
You know what must be done.
That's 90% off of where I believe we should be before the end of the decade.