It is often said that the world can't recycle its way out of the plastic pollution crisis. And statistics underscore the reality of that statement.

To date,less than a tenth of all the plasticever made has been given a new lease of life. And just 1% has been recycled twice.

The rest ends up in landfills and incinerators. Or it lands in the environment, contaminating soil, air and the oceans — which take up roughly one garbage truck of plastic every minute.

"Just because something is recyclable doesn't mean it's getting recycled," said Moritz Jäger-Roschko, a plastics expert at Greenpeace Germany. "Currently, it is simply cheaper to just make a new plastic product than to collect it and recycle it." 

Not all plastics are equal

One of the main hurdles to greater re-use is plastic type. Of the thousands out there, some, like cross-linked polymers, are hard to handle. 

"Recycling doesn't really work in the mechanical sense because you cannot split them up and bring them back into their original state," said Marc Kreutzbruck, head of the institute of plastics engineering at Germany's University of Stuttgart.

But being robust, durable and heat-resistant, they are exactly the type of plastics used in aerospace, electronics and automobiles.

"Everything in transportation that is focused on lightweight construction relies on these kinds of plastics," Kreutzbruck added.

Hazardous chemical additives

Another major sticking point is that plastics are often custom formulated with additives that make them more flexible, stronger or cheaper to produce.

Sarah Perreard, co-director of global Plastic Footprint Network coalition, said the number of additives that have been invented and used in the past decade "has increased drastically."

"We have almost created this sort of monster that we don't fully control anymore," Perreard said. 

The problems are as complex as the plastics themselves. Firstly, many additives are hazardous to both human health and the environment and can leach out during recycling or even during use in recycled products. And recycling streams contaminated with hazardous additives can be flagged as toxic waste by regulatory agencies, making re-use more complicated or even illegal.

Equally, when recycled together, additives can mix unpredictably and degrade the quality of end material, making it unattractive to manufacturers.

Other types of plastics — like PET and HDPE, used in drinking and detergent bottles respectively — are easier to recycle because the materials they're made from are easier to identify. Yet still, they are often discarded. 

"If it is technically recyclable but there is no infrastructure in many of the places where this plastic is put on the market, it will not be recycled. It will not even be well managed," Perreard said. 

Then there is composite packaging — like chip bags or coffee pods — made from a combination of plastic and aluminum or paper. They are nearly impossible to separate, and most recycling plants can't process them at all.  

Searching for solutions

Experts say it is critical to rethink the way plastics are recycled — and some are already finding new ways to turn even the most difficult-to-recycle waste into something useful.

Veena Sahajwalla, a materials scientist at the University of New South Wales in Australia, challenges the notion that every product must come back in the exact same form when recycled.

"The journey for us started at that point where we're saying, what do people mean when they say this is not recyclable? But what if we could remanufacture completely different products out of it?" she said.

Sahajwalla is pioneering 'microfactories' that transform mixed plastic waste like e-waste plastics — which are usually difficult to recycle — into high-value materials. 

"We create pools of plastic filaments that are made from 100% recycled materials out of all the difficult plastics that are in all the hardware like IT printers. And these recycled plastic filaments are then fed into a 3D printer," she said.

The idea is to use the new material for remanufacturing — right at the source.

"So, for example, our microfactory is located in the warehouse where our industry partner is basically now taking that plastic and producing these plastic filaments right there in the warehouse itself in Sydney."

A piece that's needed to fix a broken computer or printer, for instance, can be created right there in the 3D printers from recycled plastic.

"So, let's not say the problem is with the raw material. Let's talk about how we can design and redesign our manufacturing processes," Sahajwalla said.

The role of policy

Recycling alone won't fix the crisis without cutting production, though, according to Jäger-Roschko. That's why policy matters, too. What's really needed, experts say, is effective regulation.

And Pereard from the Plastic Footprint Network calls for global rules that apply to every country. "Even businesses want these rules," she said.

The latest round of UN Plastic Treaty negotiations offers a historic chance to tackle plastic pollution and recycling issues. Greenpeace is calling for a 75% reduction in plastic production by 2040, according to Jäger-Roschko.

Yet, the fossil fuel industry,which provides the oil and gas from which plastic is derived, is holding firm.

"Countries that produce oil are not in favor of a strong treaty because we see that with the shift towards renewable energy, a lot of the oil is going to be reduced over time, and plastic is a great outlet for countries that produce oil," Perreard said.

She is pushing for policies that would hold companies accountable for packaging throughout their lifecycle.

After all, experts say these big companies helped create the plastic crisis, and they have a responsibility to redesign packaging, cut down on single-use plastics, and invest in real reuse systems. 

Edited by: Tamsin Walker