Americans were not set up for success in recycling plastics. Even before China stopped accepting plastic refuse from abroad, 91 percent of potentially recyclable plastic in the U.S. ended up in landfills — or worse, in the oceans. Europe does a little better, with only 70 percent getting tossed.
Why such terrible rates? Partly because some changes that were supposed to make recycling simpler ended up making it almost impossible.
University of Georgia engineering professor Jenna Jambeck said that indeed, part of the reason China is now refusing to process American and European plastic is that so many people tossed waste into the wrong bin, resulting in a contaminated mix difficult or impossible to recycle.