How Many Times Can Plastic Be Recycled?

Because the material structure degrades during recycling, most plastics can typically be recycled only once or twice. Some materials are very difficult to recycle technically or economically; when they are recycled, the resulting raw material may be of lower quality.

Which plastics are harder to recycle?

Some plastics are difficult to process in standard collection and recycling systems because of their small size, mixed composition or contamination. Examples:

• Plastic bags — not collected separately in many municipal collection systems; although they can be processed at suitable facilities (e.g. agglomeration), reducing their use is encouraged
• Plastic straws — difficult to sort at most facilities due to their small size
• Plastic cups — require special processing/machinery that is not available at every facility
• Items such as keyboards/remote controls — require special processing
• Contaminated plastics — may be unusable if sent without washing

How can recycling rates be improved?

The priority is raising public awareness; sorting waste correctly at the source and collecting it clean improves recycling quality. In addition, equipping facilities with sufficient, modern machinery makes it possible to return a higher volume of plastic to the cycle.