Plastic loses quality with every recycling cycle, unlike glass or aluminum, which can be recycled almost indefinitely. A plastic bottle becomes lower-grade material each time it is reprocessed, until recycling it is no longer worth the cost.

That is why most plastic is not recyclable at any real scale, despite the symbols printed on packaging. Single-use items are the worst offenders. Things used for minutes then discarded — straws, bags, food wrappers — can persist for centuries. Reducing and reusing beat recycling every time.