National Production and Recycling Levels of Plastics

The major market destinations of plasdcs producdon are shown in Table 1.3. with a detailed breakdown of plastic uses in the packaging industry. Consumpdon of the six thermoplastics is led by the packaging industry (13,568 million pounds), accounting for 36% of the annual demand of the six thermoplasdcs (37,814 million pounds). 

It has been estimated by the U.S. EPA (1990b] that 29 billion pounds of plasdc are disposed in the MSW stream each year and that only 1.1% of the waste plastic stream, or 400 million pounds annually, ate recovered (Table 1.4). Municipal solid wastes come from residential, commercial, institutional and industrial sources, but do not include wastes such as construction debris, household hazardous waste, or other wastes regulated by Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Subtitle D. Seventy percent of discarded plastic is composed of nondurable goods and packaging materials. 

Similar to the EPA estimate of the annual recovery of plastics, a study for the Plastics Recycling Foundation estimated that 340 million pounds were recycled in 198S1.  

Abbreviation Resin Type SPI Code Number 1989 Demand (million pounds) %of Total  

Product Category Gengratign (10 tons) Recovery (10 tons) (%) MSW Discards (10 tons) 

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