We can all remember back when we were children, where we were taught that recycling plastics is beneficial for a healthier lifestyle and for a greener Earth. However, in recent years in towns and cities like Wichita, recycling became less and less prevalent. This is because present-day recycling deals mostly with plastics, and plastics are not as beneficial for the environment and to the comfort of our lives.

National Public Radio (NPR) explains in a 2020 investigative report that industrialists have misled the public about plastics since the 1970s and 1980s. They have personal reports and dossiers from those times detailing that recycling plastics isn’t and can’t be economically advantageous.

These reports specify how recycling plastics is actually expensive and it would be cheaper to mold new plastics from scratch. Since plastics are molded from petroleum-based products, when oil prices fluctuate, so do plastic prices. In a downhill market, plastics become even more valuable and the cost of manufacturing and distribution skyrockets. These numbers are crucial since plastics are used daily in practically every product.

Any recycled plastic product is not as robustly remolded as a newly molded plastic. In the recycling process, plastic degrades. It becomes less and less valuable and the product more and more worthless to use with every recycling revolution. Usually, one or two recycled products is the end for the plastic before complete degradation.

These monetary and degradation issues are the reasons why recycling centers either go out of business or ship their recycling waste to landfills. Some places even send it out to the oceans, which clogs them and pollutes sea creatures’ homes.

These animals are either killed by the debris or consume it. Then, in turn, these animals are hunted and sold in markets and stores with the debased plastics in their bloodstreams.

Like a recycling revolution, when we throw our plastics in the recycling bin, they will most likely come back to us in a new way and form. In the end, focusing energy on recycling resources like aluminum will be far more beneficial for everyone’s wallets and the planet, for Wichita and around the world.