ACC Action Policy Series: Improving Transparency in Recycling

Recycling Presents an Opportunity for Innovation When Done Right

By Jack Vancini

Plastic is an essential part of modern life. Its widespread use across industries such as food, healthcare, manufacturing, and more saves lives and enables the unprecedented prosperity we enjoy. It may even be the key to addressing environmental challenges in certain areas; lightweight vehicle parts reduce fuel consumption, while thermal insulation in buildings increases energy efficiency in heating and cooling. 

At the same time, decades of waste and improper disposal have taken a serious toll on our land, water, and the life that depends on them. Of the 42 million tons of plastic waste generated in the United States annually, only between 5-10% is recycled, with most ending up in a landfill. Another fraction escapes entirely, ending up in waterways, oceans, and landscapes where it threatens wildlife and ecosystems. This waste even makes its way into humans, with Americans ingesting an estimated 74,000-120,000 microplastic particles each year, the effects of which are not yet fully understood, but generally considered harmful. 

Yet, it doesn’t have to be this way. If plastic waste is properly recycled or otherwise managed, it can be kept out of landfills and our environment, mitigating its harmful effects. The challenge is real, but so are the solutions, and it’s up to policymakers and industry to make a difference.

The United States has seen limited success with recycling so far, but that comes from a structural problem in the system, not consumer behavior. A 2024 report by the Recycling Partnership found that only 43% of households participate in recycling, a rate caused by limitations in every part of the recycling process. That starts before products are even sold; it is estimated that less than half of plastic packaging is designed to be recyclable, while films and flexible plastics—the fourth largest material category by volume—cannot be processed by existing infrastructure, meaning that less than 1% of the 4.8 million tons a year is recycled. 

Even material that can be captured is lost due to insufficient access and engagement. Only 73% of households nationwide have access to recycling, a number that is significantly lower for multifamily homes at 37%. The types of recycling available also matter: deposit systems for glass, aluminum, and PET beverage containers account for more than half of recycling for those products and contribute to those materials’ relatively high rates, but only 27% of the country is covered by one. And even where access exists, poor communication and confusing guidelines mean that some households want to participate but don’t know how. Finally, an efficient recycling system depends on end markets for economic viability, and without sufficient demand, further investment in recycling is discouraged, and communities are left with the bill when facilities cannot recover their costs. Getting recycling right, therefore, depends on approaching every step of the problem, and the good news is that solutions are showing promise.

At the start of efforts to improve recycling is bolstering the backbone of the existing system: mechanical recycling. Material is collected, sorted, cleaned, and reprocessed without altering its chemical composition, which works reliably for clean, sortable plastics like bottles and rigid containers, but struggles with contaminated, mixed, or flexible materials. At the same time, investment into alternative materials like bioplastics and smarter packaging design reduces our footprint further upstream in the supply chain, but does not address the vast quantity of plastic already in the system, and some components do not have viable alternatives. 

The good news is that advanced recycling represents an emerging opportunity to fill this gap. This process uses technology like pyrolysis—heating plastic to high temperatures without oxygen—to chemically alter plastic waste, transforming it into new materials, and is especially suitable for material streams that mechanical recycling can’t handle. While newer and still developing in efficiency and scale, it offers immense potential to recover more of the materials that currently are lost to waste. 

These tools all have the potential to create a circular supply chain and keep plastic out of our environment, but cannot stand on their own without sufficient end-market demand to keep the cycle going. The bipartisan Recycled Materials Attribution Act, sponsored by Representative Langworthy, seeks to create just that by bringing accountability to the recycled materials market. It prohibits misleading recycled content claims in product marketing and prevents fuel produced from recycled feedstocks from being counted as recycled, addressing a key criticism of advanced recycling. 

Importantly, the bill legitimizes mass-balance accounting, a process that allows manufacturers to track and allocate recycled material content within blended feedstocks without physically separating recycled from conventional inputs throughout production. Under third-party certification guidelines outlined in this bill, scaling recycled inputs is much more feasible, and recycled content claims carry concrete meaning. 

It also updates the FTC’s “Green Guides” to meet modern standards and preempts a patchwork of state and local regulations that could reduce clarity for consumers and industry alike. In doing so, the Act can drive recycled material demand, creating a clear market signal for investment into the recycling technology and infrastructure America needs. The result is a recycled materials market backed up by a credible foundation, and that gives the entire recycling system, from collection to processing to advanced recovery, a reason to invest and grow.

Plastic pollution is a real and urgent threat to Americans and our environment, compounded by mismanaged policy and inaction. But it is not an inevitable part of the modern lifestyle we depend on. A future where plastic is recovered, reused, and kept out of places it doesn’t belong is closer than ever. Passing the Recycled Materials Attribution Act is one step toward making that future possible, building a solid foundation for a recycled materials market that can sustain itself and turn a problem into an economic opportunity.