The Need for Recycling Waste Plastic Plastics are durable, lightweight, and inexpensive materials. They can readily be molded into various products that find uses in a plethora of applications. Every year, more than 100 million tons of plastics are manufactured across the globe. Around 200 billion pounds of new plastic material is thermoformed, foamed, laminated, and extruded into millions of packages and products. Consequently, the reuse, recovery, and recycling of plastics are extremely impor...