Tony Radoszewski, President and CEO of the Plastics Industry Association (Plastics) responded to the latest Greenpeace report: “The February 18 report released by Greenpeace is part of a targeted campaign against the nearly one million Americans employed by the plastics industry. Instead of seeking actual solutions, Greenpeace chooses to release sensationalist ‘studies’ that do nothing to address the real issue. There is a lack of sufficient recycling infrastructure for all materials in the U.S. and this must be addressed. However, lifecycle analyses consistently show that, on the whole, plastics are more environmentally beneficial than alternative material – and even more so when they are successfully recycled into new materials.
We take issue with the report for many reasons, and there is already an ongoing industry-wide dialogue about how the recycling system is performing today and how it could perform with an updated infrastructure. Measures like the Recover Act – which would designate funds to improve the recycling infrastructure in this country – and other efforts like the Recycle Act and the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act are the kinds of legislation our industry supports in order to build a robust recycling system here in the U.S.”