Click the icon to add a specified price to your Dashboard list. This makes it easy to keep track on the prices that matter most to you.
The Association of Plastic Recyclers is proud to announce the second year of Recycling in Action an initiative designed to show the public what happens after recyclables are put in a bin, provide tips on better recycling, and encourage participation. Launched in 2025 with 36 facilities across 20 states opening their doors for more than 150 public tours, this year the program is expanding to include additional tours across United States (US) and at the world’s largest PET recycler in Mexico.
Many people don’t fully understand what happens after they place a plastic container in the recycling bin. This May, material recovery facilities (MRFs) and plastic reclaimers will offer tours giving the public a firsthand look at the recycling process. Visitors will see how conveyor belts, robotic arms, and optical sensors work alongside recycling professionals to sort billions of pounds of material each year keeping valuable resources in circulation and out of landfills. While many assume recycling happens far from home, these tours highlight what happens every day at more than 480 recycling facilities operating across the U.S. and Canada, including over 400 MRFs and more than 80 plastic reclaimers, making it possible to recycle plastic close to where it’s collected.
“As Recycling in Action enters its second year, it comes at a critical time for plastic recycling in North America. Strengthening and expanding recycling systems is essential to capturing more valuable materials and reducing waste,” said APR President and CEO Steve Alexander. “Seeing is believing this program gives people a firsthand look at how their everyday actions connect to a larger system that keeps existing plastic in circulation rather than relying on virgin plastic.”
Thousands of community members participated in tours last May, and according to post-tour surveys it renewed their confidence in recycling:
-85% said recycling works better than they previously thought
-74% said they are more confident what they put in the bin gets recycled
-70% said they feel more confident in their ability to recycle correctly
Building confidence and ensuring recyclable plastics are put in the bin is critical. Recent data shows that 5 billion pounds of plastic was recycled in the US in 2022, which is the equivalent of 340 18-wheeler trucks of plastic kept out of landfills every single day. Using recycled content in packaging reduces reliance on virgin, petroleum-based plastic and requires 75% less energy than producing new materials which is top of mind for many right now, with oil and energy prices rising. In 2022, the energy saved by plastic recycling could have powered over a million homes for a year. At the same time, recycling is a major economic driver in North America, supporting 600,000 jobs across the U.S.
The Recycling in Action experience will allow people to see how recyclers separate materials using state-of-art technology, understand why certain materials contaminate the process, see how material is further processed to be made into new products, learn more about how recycling works in their community, and what they can do to support and grow recycling.
Note: This story has not been edited by The Polymerupdate Editorial team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.
