Musings: Don't mislabel plastic recycling
Plastic waste at the Brookhaven Recycling Facility. If we’re going to truly slow the tide of plastic entering our oceans, choking our waters and harming wildlife, we need to stop producing so many plastic products in the first place, a reader writes. Credit: /Morgan Campbell
Despite plastic being one of the most difficult materials to recycle, companies continue to put recycling symbols on items that will never end up anywhere but the landfill.
If we’re going to truly slow the tide of plastic entering our oceans, choking our waters and harming wildlife, we need to stop producing so many plastic products in the first place.
But when companies put misleading information on those products, it perpetuates the myth that we can recycle our way out of this problem.
Our governor and state legislators should support “truth in recycling” policies so companies aren’t allowed to put information on their products that misleads the public on which items will actually be recycled.
— Joseph M. Varon, West Hempstead
The writer is a past president of the New York State Marine Education Association.
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