Chasing Arrows: The Truth About Recycling

Recycle Ann Arbor co-founded AMBR, the Alliance of Mission-based Recyclers in 2020 with the purpose of guiding new recycling policies and rebuilding credible, transparent recycling systems. In 2022 AMBR partnered with the Peak Plastic Foundation to create this film. 

A short film about how plastics trash recycling

Chasing Arrows: The Truth About Recycling,” outlines how the plastics industry is trashing recycling with non-recyclable plastics. It exposes the recycling myths industry promotes, such as blaming the recycling system and consumers for plastic pollution. The real problem is one they created and are expanding: They are simply making too much plastic, most of which cannot be recycled.

 

Reduce, reuse, then recycle: this was where recycling was intended to fit within the circular economy.

Instead, recycling has become the scapegoat for unchecked plastic packaging production. We will never recycle our way out of the plastic pollution crisis. But with support, regulation, and investments, we can rebuild the recycling system, a vital part of a Zero Waste society.

Chasing arrows was produced by Peak Plastic Foundation, an Emmy Award-winning filmmaking collective working toward ending fossil fuels.

AMBR is a coalition founded by four of the original pioneers of mission-driven, community-based nonprofit recycling in the U.S. Together, we are guiding new recycling policies and infrastructure investments to rebuild credible, transparent recycling systems. AMBR’s founding members are Eco-Cycle, Ecology Center, Eureka Recycling, and Recycle Ann Arbor. 

Visit https://ambr-recyclers.org to learn more.