This article is part of a special report,The Recycling Myth.

Most experts agree that recycling is an important way to reduce waste and to recover valuable materials, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and conserving significant amounts of energy and water. And yet, of the 2.3 billion tons of waste generated in the EU each year, only 37 percent gets recycled.

Some materials, such as aluminum cans, glass and paper, are relatively easy to repurpose (Nearly three-quarters of this type of waste sees a new life as a consumer product.)

But plastic poses a particular problem. Of the 29 million tons of plastic waste collected in the EU in 2018, less than a third was recycled. About a quarter went into landfills, and about 43 percent was burned in incineration plants.

“Plastic recycling is largely a fraud,” said Jim Puckett, the executive director of the Basel Action Network, an NGO in the U.S. that works to end illegal waste trade. “It’s been sold to us as being the answer to all the plastic waste and consumption, but in fact it really has some fundamental aspects of non-circularity that are going to plague that myth and dream forever."

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