Does recycling get recycled? What happens to each material after pickup
California's SB 343, the state law that sets when a package may carry the chasing-arrows recycling symbol, reached its compliance date on October 4, 2026, according to CalRecycle, the state recycling agency. A federal court order issued on July 14, 2026 blocks the state from enforcing it. Whether recycling gets recycled depends on the material. In every California county CalRecycle surveyed, at least one plant sorts cardboard, glass, steel cans and clear plastic drink bottles, while none sorts polystyrene (the plastic in foam cups and rigid takeout boxes) or plastic film other than bags.
I think evidence from collection and sorting alone cannot support a recyclability claim, since CalRecycle's SB 343 sorting survey stops at the sorting plant and never reaches the plant that remakes the material. Oregon now requires sorting plants to report where each bale, a compressed block of one sorted material, goes, with the first reports due in December 2025, and each report names the remaking plant, called an end market.
How rates are counted
The US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) national recycling rate divides the tons of municipal solid waste (household, business and institutional trash) recovered for recycling by the tons generated. Its latest full data year is 2018, and our arithmetic on EPA's national figures puts recycling alone at 23.6 percent of generation. EPA's better-known 32.1 percent figure adds composting, which covers yard trimmings and food.
Corrugated boxes supply almost half of the 69 million tons EPA counted as recycled in 2018, and taking them out of both the recycled tons and the generated tons drops the national rate to 14.2 percent in our arithmetic. I read that as a national rate driven by cardboard, with plastics accounting for 4.5 percent of the tons recycled.
EPA published a second count in August 2024, in a report Congress requested on the cost of modernizing recycling. It covers the residential sector and puts the 2019 cardboard recycling rate at 53.5 percent. The 2018 count gives corrugated boxes 96.5 percent across all sectors. Because the two counts differ in year, sector and source, no single cause explains the difference between them.
Material | EPA 2018 count, all sectors | EPA 2019 count, residential | Surveyed California counties where plants sort it |
Corrugated boxes | 96.5% | 53.5% | 100% |
Aluminum beverage cans | 50.4% | 36.9% | 79% |
Steel cans and packaging | 73.8% | 31.2% | 100% |
Glass containers | 31.3% | 41.4% | 100% |
PET bottles and jars (clear drink bottles) | 29.1% | 23.2% | 100% |
HDPE bottles (milk and water jugs) | 29.3% | 22.7% | 100% |
PET clamshells and trays | not reported | 5.9% | 100% |
Plastic bags, sacks and wraps | 10.0% | not covered | 56% |
Polystyrene packaging other than bags | 4.9% | not covered | 0% |
Analysis: Gasilov Group, our compilation of EPA Facts and Figures 2018, EPA report 530-R-24-010 and CalRecycle's June 2026 sorting table, with row definitions that differ by source. The 5.9 percent for PET clamshells and trays is EPA's rate for all PET non-bottle containers.
What happens after pickup
After pickup, a truck takes curbside recyclables to a material recovery facility (MRF), a plant that sorts them into bales by material. CalRecycle surveyed the plants serving 34 counties in 2023 and 2024, since SB 343 required it to find out what those plants sort.
Because CalRecycle's updated sorting table shows no surveyed plant sorting polystyrene or plastic film other than bags, those items leave the plant as residue for disposal, whatever symbol they carry. EPA's 4.9 percent for polystyrene packaging other than bags covers all sectors nationally, while the 0 percent covers the plants in the 34 surveyed counties.
CalRecycle states in its SB 343 FAQ that the sorting study was never directed to trace where the bales go after they leave the plant. Plants in all 34 surveyed counties sort PET clamshells, the hinged clear food containers, which makes them look as recyclable as PET bottles on sorting evidence. EPA's 2019 count puts the national residential recycling rate for PET non-bottle containers at 5.9 percent.
Circular Action Alliance, the producer responsibility organization (PRO) that producers fund to run packaging programs in Oregon and California, must ensure collected material reaches responsible end markets. A packaging team can ask the PRO for the buyer and the yield behind each package format, with yield being the share of a bale that becomes new material. Curbside acceptance lists, meaning the materials a local program accepts at the curb, do not show what happens at the remaking plant, so I would stop using them as evidence for recyclability claims.
California's Responsible Textile Recovery Act applies a similar logic to clothing, and I told VC Reporter in April that it moves the cost of managing textile waste from local governments and taxpayers to the companies producing the clothing.
Figure 1. Share of a US packaging mix counted as recycled under EPA's 2018 and 2019 counts, and share of tons sorted in at least 60 percent of surveyed California counties. The three figures are 70.9, 46.8 and 91.8 percent. Analysis: Gasilov Group, our compilation and arithmetic, as of October 2026.
End-market reporting
Under Oregon's 2021 Recycling Modernization Act, sorting plants report where each bale went, and the state's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) defines the remaking plant by material. For paper it is a pulp mill, for metal a re-melter, for glass a bottle maker, and for plastic outside food packaging and children's products a pellet or flake producer. DEQ's rules also make adequate yield part of the test for a responsible buyer, along with legal compliance, transparency and sound environmental practice.
SB 54, California's 2022 packaging law, also requires the PRO to send collected material to responsible end markets. Every end market receiving Oregon's material must be verified as responsible by June 30, 2027. California's PRO must name every end market it uses in an annual report due July 1, 2027.
I made a related point to Sourcing Journal in April about Earth Day marketing, saying that the brands whose environmental claims will hold up are the ones whose operations already generate the verified data behind them. If you already know what you need, or want help finding out, get in touch and we can scope it.
Arif Gasilov is partner for Natural Resources & Built Environment at Gasilov Group, where he works on energy regulatory analysis, water governance, utility rate cases, and the resource footprint of large development. Meet our partners →
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Can a package sold in California still carry the recycling symbol?
Products manufactured before October 4, 2026 fall outside SB 343 regardless of when they are sold, according to CalRecycle's SB 343 FAQ. The July 14, 2026 injunction blocking the state from enforcing SB 343 is preliminary.
