Whenever you throw a used plastic bottle into a recycling bin, you feel a virtuous glow. With that simple action you have prevented the bottle ending up on a landfill site, and allowed the valuable oil in the material to be re-used.
Yet, however good your intentions, plastic recycling is less green than you might imagine.
The recycled plastic most plants in the US and UK produce is not clean enough to be turned into food or drink packaging, the largest and most profitable market for plastics. Instead, it is converted into industrial packaging and textiles, which earn the recycling…
