Questão de Inglês — Interpretação de Textos (Understanding) — VUNESP 2025

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Global plastic recycling rates are stuck at under 10 per cent, a comprehensive new study shows. Plastic production has exploded in the meantime, creating a pressing global environmental challenge, according to researchers from Tsinghua University in China. The vast majority of plastics are made from virgin resin using fossil-fuel based feedstocks¹, which compromises the global efforts to mitigate climate change. The findings add to a relatively small but growing body of research on sources of plastic pollution throughout the supply chain².

To create a first-of-its-kind analysis of the global plastics sector, the researchers analyzed national statistics, industry reports, and international databases from 2022. They found that just 9 per cent of the 437 million tonnes of new plastic produced that year came from recycled materials. “The global recycling rate remained stagnant [...] reflecting little improvement from previous years,” according to the researchers. The United States — the largest consumer of plastic per capita — has one of the world’s lowest recycling rates at just 5 per cent reuse, they note. It worsened after China prohibited plastic waste imports in 2018.

While consumers separate their waste with the best of intentions, only 38 million tonnes of the 75 million tonnes of plastic separated and collected each year ends up being recycled. A number of factors are holding plastic recycling back, the study explains. For one, large quantities of plastic materials make processing them difficult. Food smeared onto plastic, labels, and other kinds of contamination further impede the process at recycling facilities. From an economic point of view, virgin plastic can often be cheaper to work with than recycled plastic, largely due to fluctuating oil prices. This discourages investment in recycling infrastructure and technology, keeping recycling rates low. More should be done at the design stage too, the researchers say, to ensure products can be recycled efficiently.

(Lottie Limb. www.euronews.com, 14.04.2025. Adaptado.)

¹ fossil-fuel based feedstocks: matérias-primas feitas a partir de combustíveis fósseis.

² supply chain: cadeia de suprimentos.