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Only 5% of the mountains of plastic waste generated by US households last year was recycled, according to new research by Greenpeace. Americans discarded 51m tons of wrappers, bottles and bags in 2021 - about 309lb of plastic per person - of which almost 95% ended up in landfills, oceans or scattered in the atmosphere in tiny toxic particles. The plastics problem is not just down to wanton consumerism or laziness - in fact the situation would still be bad even if every household separated every piece of plastic and disposed of it in a dedicated recycling plant, according to…