How Greenpeace plastic circularity report impacts beauty and personal care

To solve the issue of plastic waste the industry talks a lot about a circular recycling economy, but a recent Greenpeace report says under present conditions, that’s not possible.

The environmental action group released a report in October on claims of circularity in the plastics industry. The thesis of the report is that considering current access to recycling, recycling rates and the state of the plastic recycling industry, plastic circularity is far from achievable.

According to a similar Greenpeace report from 2020, plastic circularity is challenging to achieve because plastic collection, sorting and processing are not economically incentivized as the expansion of plastic production lowers the cost of virgin resin.

“That prediction has proven true as the U.S. plastic recycling rate has continued to decline,”​ the report read. “Since 2020, an even greater barrier to plastic recycling than poor economics has come into focus through scientific research and testing: the toxicity of recycled plastic.”​

Read more...​