“Recycle” By Mail Is A Major Climate Fail

A fact sheet released today by Beyond Plastics and The Last Beach Clean Up shines a light on the troubling hidden climate and other environmental impacts of mail-back “recycling” programs offered by many major brands. Although currently little-used, should these mail-back programs grow to scale, the impact of trucking billions of boxes of used single-use plastic products thousands of miles across the country to be downcycled would speed the rise in global temperatures as we creep ever closer to the 1.5 degree C increase that scientists agree we must stay within to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.