Fast Facts

Plastic Film

What exactly is plastic film?
Totaling nearly 40% of all plastic packaging, plastic film is typically a thin-gauge packaging element. Generated: Examples of the material include grocery sacks, trash bags, dry cleaning garment bags and plastic stretch wrap.
• 4.3 million tons of plastic film, 1.95% of MSW by weight.*
• 0.84 Million tons of trash bags, 0.4% of MSW by weight.*
• 1.48 million tons of bags and sacks, 0.7% of MSW by weight.*
• 1.98 million tons of wrap, 0.9% of MSW by weight.*
• 31.85 pounds of plastic film per person per year.*

Recycled:
• 130,000 tons for a 3% plastic film recycling rate.*
• Trash bags have a negligible recycling rate.*
• 10,000 tons or 0.7% of bags and sacks were recycled.*
• 120,000 tons or 6.1% of plastic wrap were recycled.*
• Manufactured from a variety of resins and colors, plastic film poses a difficulty in recycling because of the material’s thickness.
• Recycling programs have been established in large US cities specifically for collecting plastic grocery bags.

Recycled Content:
• Post-consumer content is not present in most plastic film, however the appearance of pre-consumer recycled content is increasing.
• Plastic film’s thickness can increase up to 50% if the product contains recycled content

Composted:
• Unless the bags are made from degradable plastics, plastic film is not compostable.
• Studies are inconclusive on the practicality of degradable plastics.

Density:
• Weighing in at nearly 1,100 pounds, the horizontally baled plastic film block is sized at 30" x 42" x 48"
• Landfilled plastic film has a density of 670 pounds per cubic yard.

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