A model of plastics recycling: Does recycling reduce the amount of waste?

Abstract A model for recycling plastics is made to ‘phase in’ recycling over a given period. The recycled plastic can either replace virgin plastic or enter a new market where plastics are not normally used. The former is denoted as ‘true recycling’ and the latter, ‘new market recycling’. It is shown that ‘true recycling’ will eventually reduce the amount of waste by the same amount of plastic that is recycled. On the other hand, ‘new market recycling’ will not reduce the amount of plastic waste and after a given period the overall result is that there is no effect on the amount of plastic waste generated. This is due to the fact that plastics in general have a finite lifetime.