The plastics industry wants us to believe there are viable ways to recycle most plastic waste.
The truth is, less than 1 percent of the tens of billions of plastic bags used in the U.S. each year are recycled, and the U.S. is now burning six times the amount of plastic it’s recycling. The rest ends up in our streams or in a landfill.
The incineration process releases cancer-causing pollutants and eight out of ten incinerators in the U.S. are in low-income communities.
Some of the roadside litter breaks down into small pieces. On average, 57 million microplastics flow through Portland in the Willamette River every day.
