The State of Plastic Recycling by Hi-Cone

Hi-Cone — a supplier of sustainable and environmentally friendly packaging —  recently published its first annual report on “The State of Plastic Recycling.” Among several other insights regarding plastic pollution in the packaging industry, the report discovered that over 56% of adults across all territories find that they have a lack of knowledge around recycling plastic. 

Of the 5,500 adults surveyed across four markets – Mexico, Spain, the UK, and the United States — 75 percent of adults reportedly engage in regular, at-home recycling, and 69% claim to regularly recycle anything in public recycling bins.

You can download the full report HERE. 

Not only does the report encourage the principles of reduce, reuse, and recycling it also stresses upon the benefits of striving towards a circular economy — one which makes the most of available resources and transforms waste into opportunities for innovation. The Scientific American defines this as: “A better alternative… where waste is minimized by planning in advance how materials can be reused and recycled at a product’s end of life rather than trying to figure that out after the fact.”

Additionally, the report states that moving forward we must:

• Push for governments and local authorities and packaging providers to improve recycling systems
  
  
• Work with retailers, packaging providers, and brands to use innovative, science-based, thoughtful insights to change packaging procedures for the better
  
  
• Improve consumer awareness about how to recycle all types of plastics, including ring carriers, and drive a circular economy