Americans Are Recycling. Why Are We Importing Plastic Instead?

On Global Recycling Day, the U.S. should treat recycling as part of its manufacturing and supply chain strategy 

By Heidi Sanborn, Executive Director/CEO and Heath Nettles, Deputy Director, National Stewardship Action Council  

Every week, millions of American families roll their recycling carts to the curb believing something simple: the bottle they place inside will become another bottle. 

That belief is the foundation of our recycling system. It is why people take the time to separate and put materials in the recycling bin, why communities invest in collection programs and why essential workers show up in rain, snow and even during a pandemic to collect and sort the materials Americans set aside. 

Recycling works when the materials collected are turned into new products and packaging. Sortation by the public is the first step, collection is the second step. Remanufacturing is what completes the process and makes materials “circular”. 

Today, the challenge facing the recycling system is not sorting or the public wanting to do the right thing.  It’s U.S.-based companies buying materials from foreign sources instead of American recycled content.

Some very large U.S. companies are choosing to import recycled plastic from Asia rather than using the material already collected and processed here in the United States, often the very same plastic they sold into the marketplace in the first place. 

As a result, domestic recycling facilities are closing. 

Several key recycling facilities closed in the last few months, reducing 20% the U.S. PET  (the plastic found in most plastic beverage bottles) recycling capacity. Facilities in Ohio, New York,

Texas and California have closed or scaled back operations, and the pace of facility closers are accelerating. 

The recycling facility closures come with real consequences for everyday Americans.

When recycling facilities shut down, American workers lose jobs and families lose income. Communities lose employers and tax revenue. Local governments may face higher costs to process the recycling their residents continue to put in the bin. 

At the same time, supply chains grow more dependent on imported materials entering American ports at a moment of the U.S. entering multiple wars destabilizing and increasing the costs of shipping. 

Recycling is often framed as an environmental program. What is rarely talked about is recycling is jobs and infrastructure, manufacturing and increasingly  about economic resilience and national security to recycle rare earth minerals. 

Across the political spectrum, policymakers are working to strengthen domestic manufacturing and reduce supply chain vulnerabilities. Recycling should be part of that strategy. 

The materials Americans place in their recycling carts every week represent a valuable domestic resource, one that can feed existing manufacturing plants, employ people, and strengthen local economies - if it is ReMade in America and not landfilled. 

But the benefits of recycling only happens when the loop is completed. 

Research from the Sustainable Packaging Coalition shows strong consumer preference for products made with recycled materials. States are implementing policies designed to strengthen recycling systems and increase the supply of recyclable materials. Some companies continue to make public commitments to increase recycled content in their packaging. 

The public is doing its part. Workers are doing theirs. 

What remains is aligning procurement decisions from the “C” suite with the system Americans are being asked to support. 

When companies bypass recycled materials already collected and processed in this country, the consequences are predictable. Facilities are idle. Investments stall. Closures accelerate. Jobs are lost. 

And the cost lands on American communities. 

If domestic recycling capacity continues to disappear while collection programs expand, cities and towns will face higher costs to manage the materials residents place in their recycling carts. Families who faithfully recycle could pay more for a system that delivers less value back to their communities. 

Recycling works best when it is treated not as a public relations program but as a real manufacturing system and economic driver 

That means transparency about where recycled materials are sourced and where they go to be recycled or disposed. It means companies buying recycled materials  collected and processed in the United States. And it means recognizing recycling infrastructure as part of the same economic foundation that supports resilient supply chains and American jobs. 

On this Global Recycling Day, Americans should know their participation matters. 

The family putting out their recycling cart each week matters. The sanitation worker collecting bins before sunrise matters. The workers sorting materials inside recycling facilities matter. 

Families and workers have kept their end of the bargain. 

Now procurement decisions and policy must align with the system Americans are already supporting. 

Because recycling only works when materials are made into new products.