Recycling of plastic is only even possible for a really low percentage of the total produced, it's not a fungible thing since there are seven different grades and each one is incompatible with the other in terms of recycling. Some of those grades are not recyclable at all.
Currently we recycle 9% of plastics, sorting through the cheaper grades is non-trivial, we can't recycle our way out of this mess.
Burning plastic will just create more pollution, capturing outgassing from burning is also non-trivial.
We should instead use less plastic, the 3 Rs start with Reduce, then Re-use and only after that Recycle.
Thank you for remembering the other 2 Rs! I just had a conversation with someone last week where I brought up the two prior to Recycle, and they had completely forgotten.
Even the ubiquitous 3 Rs logo with arrows has now become shorthand for just recycle.
