Barriers to circularity
Recycling plastic is far from straightforward.
From the huge variety of materials in use to weak infrastructure and a lack of clear standards, there are many reasons why high-quality recycling remains out of reach in many parts of the world.
Complexity of plastic
Plastic recycling is a difficult and complex process, largely because plastics come in so many different forms. Each type is made from a different mix of base monomers, additives, pigments, stabilisers, and manufacturing processes – all of which affect how it can be recycled.
The problem doesn’t stop there. Before plastic even reaches a recycling facility, it has usually gone through a lot – sun exposure, saltwater, breakage, contact with chemicals or bacteria – all of which can damage the material and reduce its quality.
When collecting plastic waste, it’s common to receive a mix of high- and low-quality materials. Often, it’s hard to tell what makes something low-quality – it might contain fillers or additives, but that’s not always obvious. Once recycled, all this plastic gets blended together.
This blending lowers the overall quality of the recycled material, even if some of it was originally good. When that product is recycled again, it further contaminates any new, potentially higher-quality stream.
Over time, this creates a downward spiral. At every recycling stage, the quality drops further. Even a small amount of poor-quality plastic – often from additives, fillers, or unknown formulations – gradually downgrades the entire pool. The result? It becomes almost impossible for a country to maintain a supply of high-quality recycled plastic, no matter how good the original input was.
Key challenges include:
| Diverse types | Plastics like PET, HDPE, and PP all behave differently and need separate processing. |
|---|---|
| Additives | Fillers, pigments, and chemical agents can interfere with melting or reprocessing. |
| Contamination | Residues from food, glue, paint or labels make recycling harder or impossible. |
| Identification | Plastics are often misidentified at sorting, especially when types look similar. |
These challenges must be considered when designing recycling systems or trying to improve recovery processes.
Logistical and infrastructural limitations
Recycling plastics comes with many challenges – from collection and cleaning to the time and effort needed to sort different materials.
- Limited collection systems – In many places, there’s no organised way to collect or separate plastic waste, which makes recycling much harder.
- Not enough machinery – Modern recycling machines are often hard to access, and they need skilled people to run and maintain them properly.
- Unreliable power – In remote areas, frequent power cuts can interrupt recycling processes, slow everything down, and push up costs.
Lack of standards and material traceability
Low-quality materials produce low-quality products. These materials reduce the overall value of recycled plastic and can even turn something recyclable into a de facto single-use item. If there’s no economic value, there’s no incentive to collect it – meaning it’s effectively no longer recyclable.
That’s why enforceable quality standards are so important. They should set minimum expectations for recyclate* quality, helping to maintain the value of the whole system.
At the moment, most standards don’t regulate the use or labelling of additives – despite the fact that these affect recyclability. With better sorting and processing, even recyclate collected by informal waste pickers can reach the same quality as material from formal systems. Making sorting easier and more consistent would help recycling compete with virgin plastic and improve the overall economics of the sector.
Key gaps in standards and information
- No uniform guidelines: Recycling and manufacturing standards differ from place to place, making coordination and quality control difficult.
- Inconsistent labelling: Many products lack clear, standardised markings to show what they’re made of. Even when labels exist, they’re often limited to a small, hard-to-read triangle.
- Missing information on additives: Additives and fillers can drastically change how plastic behaves – but this information is rarely provided. Without it, high-quality recycling becomes nearly impossible.
- Poor sorting clues: In most places, sorting is still done by hand. When there’s no easy way to tell what a material is, people rely on how it looks or feels – often leading to mistakes.
- Data gaps: We still don’t have enough reliable information on plastic waste flows, collection rates, or recovery outcomes. That makes it hard to plan improvements or measure impact.
* Recyclate is a term used to describe material that has been recovered and reprocessed through recycling, and is now ready to be used as a raw material in the manufacturing of new products.
In the context of plastics, plastic recyclate refers to plastic waste that has been sorted, cleaned, and processed (e.g. shredded, melted, or pelletised), and can now be used in place of virgin plastic in production.
It’s important to note that the quality of recyclate can vary a lot depending on the input materials and the recycling process – which affects how, and where, it can be reused.
