The process of recycling prevents these waste materials from ending up in landfills or the environment, reducing pollution and emissions. Recycling also reduces the need to extract natural resources from the environment for new products, reduces carbon dioxide emissions, and conserves energy.
However, material that is recycled doesn’t always get recycled: only around 32% of all recycling is actually recycled. This number is even worse when it comes to plastics specifically: only 5–6% of all plastics are recycled. This is due many people’s incorrect recycling habits: many people throw non-recyclable plastics, such as plastic bags, packing peanuts, batteries, straws, in the recycling bin. Another issue is that there is a huge variety of plastics. Different types of plastics with different chemical additives and dyes are unable to be recycled together. Hopefully, by educating people about recycling through social media and other means we can improve these numbers in the future.