Recovery of plastic from mixed waste boosts recycling rates but affects quality

Recovering plastic packaging from mixed domestic waste, as well as collecting plastic waste already sorted by households, increases recycling volumes but raises contamination and safety risks. Policies that support the sorting of plastics from mixed waste at central facilities should have strict quality standards and investment in advanced purification systems to ensure safe recycling outcomes.

Source research: Schmuck, A. et al. Analysis of trade-offs of post-sorting plastic packaging. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10606-4 (2026).

Messages for policy

• Prioritize improving separate collection systems for recyclable plastic, because most recyclable plastics are currently lost before reaching the sorting or recycling stages.

• Use post-sorting (the recovery of recyclable plastic from mixed waste) to complement, not to replace, pre-sorting by households and businesses, to maximize recovery, especially in regions where participation is low and/or where mixed, unsorted waste is common.

• Prevent non-packaging waste from entering packaging-recycling streams, to reduce contamination risks from hazardous substances and batteries.

• Require advanced purification and strict quality standards for plastics sourced and recycled from post-sorted bales, to ensure that the quality of recycled plastic is equivalent to that from pre-sorting streams, especially for use in food packaging.

The policy problem

The amount of plastic packaging waste is rising quickly, but recycling systems are not keeping pace. As a result, most of this waste is still incinerated, placed in landfill or released into the environment. Plastic production therefore continues to depend mainly on virgin fossil-based inputs1, instead of recycled materials.

Governments worldwide are setting targets to increase recycling and use more recycled plastic, with source separation — in which recyclable materials are separated from other materials by households or businesses — being the main approach to the collection and sorting of plastic waste in much of Europe2 and the United States3. However, large amounts of recyclable plastics are still thrown away in mixed household waste, owing to mis-sorting and non-participation, making it hard to hit these government targets4.

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