Plastic recycling rates have never been something to write home about—but according to a new report by the environmental group Greenpeace, they’ve gotten even worse in recent years. All of those bagless trips back from the grocery store, cradling our rotisserie chickens in our arms to save the planet, and for what?

According to the report, less than 5% of all plastic waste that was discarded by Americans in 2021 (51 million tons) was recycled. That’s a significant drop even from the EPA’s 2018 estimate of 8.7%. Plastic recycling rates peaked at 9.5% in 2014 and have been declining ever since.

What even is recyclable?

Apparently not much. According to the Greenpeace report, virtually no plastic—including soda bottles—meets the threshold to be called recyclable. Plus, waste management companies have no infrastructure to collect and sort the variety of types of plastics (there are thousands) to properly recycle them, and they can’t be melted together.

US consumers also face an increasing glut of plastic products that offset improvements in recycling rates. Virgin plastic—or new, unrecycled plastic—is cheaper than recycled plastic, so companies are continuing to produce hundreds of millions of tons of it each year.

How is this getting worse?

Well, the US is good at making straws flimsier and bad at actually recycling. Despite 94% of consumers being supportive of recycling, only about 59% of US households have access to curbside service as of 2019. The country’s 32% recycling rate as of 2018 is dismal when compared to Germany’s 67%, or Slovenia’s 75%, per Statista.

Our numbers got even worse in 2018 when China—which had previously imported about half the world’s recycling—stopped accepting most plastic waste from Western countries due to most of it being contaminated and unrecyclable. Up until then, the US counted all plastic waste exported to China as recycled, even if it was actually being burned or dumped.

Looking ahead…while the plastic recycling outlook looks pretty bleak—the stuff is in our blood, after all—there are solutions. In its report, Greenpeace called on companies to reduce plastic production by 50% by 2030, move back toward a “milkman” concept of sanitizing and refilling glass bottles, and support the UN’s ambitious and legally binding global plastics treaty.—MK

Brittney Griner’s appeal was rejected. A Russian court upheld a prison sentence for Griner, the American basketball star who was found guilty on drug charges there. Griner will be required to serve about eight years in a Russian penal colony—unless the US government makes good on its promise to bring her home via a prisoner swap. Earlier this month Griner’s wife said, “BG’s at her absolute weakest moment in life right now.”

Three stripes and you’re out: Just 30 minutes after we sent yesterday’s newsletter, Adidas announced that it was ending its partnership with Ye (formerly known as Kanye West). The German sportswear giant was facing mounting pressure to end its business ties with Ye after he made a series of antisemitic remarks in recent weeks. “Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous,” the company said, and revealed that it would take up to a $246 million hit to its bottom line as a result of cutting ties.

Liberal Democrats retract letter about Ukraine. A group of progressive Democrats disavowed a letter that was released Monday encouraging President Biden to bring a “rapid end” to the war in Ukraine by talking directly with Russia. After receiving backlash from her own party, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the letter was released without vetting, and tried to distance her stance on the war from that of powerful Republicans, who want to stop providing billions in aid to Ukraine.

But probably not the kind you’re thinking of. After a summer of dire warnings about crippling energy shortages there, Europe has the exact opposite problem on its hands—it has too much natural gas.

Dozens of ships are waiting to offload liquified natural gas at European storage facilities, but they have nowhere to put it: Caverns are filled to the brim. And given the ample supply, European natural gas prices have dropped more than 70% from their record high in August.

This situation is certainly a relief to European leaders, who feared that their move to reduce gas imports from Russia would lead to an energy crisis when the weather turned cold.

So why hasn’t that crisis materialized?

• The weather hasn’t turned cold. Many regions of Europe have experienced mild weather this fall, reducing demand for heat.
• Plus, Europe’s all-out effort to conserve energy is paying off. Demand for natural gas is down 7% YTD compared to the 2019–21 average, per the think tank Bruegel.

But don’t say “mission accomplished” just yet. Experts warn this gas glut could be temporary, particularly if the weather doesn’t cooperate.—NF

Looks like everything your mom told you to get you to put the controller down was wrong. First, the rise of the esports industry made it clear that you can actually have a career playing video games. And now, a study backed by the National Institutes of Health has found that young gamers score higher on brain-function tests.

Here’s what the research revealed:

• Kids who played video games for three or more hours per day were faster and more accurate at tasks requiring impulse control and memorization than kids who didn’t play them at all, researchers at the University of Vermont determined.
• Neuroimaging also showed that the game-playing kids had more activity in areas of the brain associated with attention and memory.

The study, which was published Monday, is not the first to find a positive link between gaming and cognitive tasks, but it is the biggest: It included data from almost 2,000 nine- and 10 year-olds.

Not so fast, Sonic: The study didn’t actually prove that gaming causes better cognitive performance. More research is needed to understand the effects—both negative and positive—of video games. This research used data from an even larger study that is tracking 12,000 kids as they grow, so scientists will be able to conduct further analysis of the same children.—AR

Stat: That’s a live shot of us writing news in email form. According to a new Pew survey, the share of Americans who get their news on TikTok has tripled since 2020. Now, 10% of all adults, and 26% of adults under 30, get their news from TikTok. At the same time, the share of adults getting their news from Facebook has plunged from 54% to 44%. (Obligatory plug for our TikTok account.)

Quote: “Our country is facing a profound economic crisis.”

On his first day as the UK’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak dropped some hard truths about the country’s bleak economic outlook. Sunak pledged to fix the mistakes of his predecessor Liz Truss, bring stability to the government, and help the economy climb out of stagflation. Maybe his background running DCF models might help—a Goldman Sachs vet, Sunak will become the first UK prime minister who’s worked at a hedge fund.

Read: Bloomberg’s Matt Levine wrote ~40,000 words explaining crypto. It’s illuminating, but you may want to bookmark it for the weekend. (Bloomberg)

Spotify vs. Apple: A musician received about the same amount of streams on Spotify and Apple Music. He breaks down which paid out more—and why—in this video.

You’re gonna need Vaseline: A pumpkin carving expert teaches you how to chisel a gourd the right way. Watch here.

Ghosts can’t hurt you this Halloween season. But scammers, spoofers, and phishers can. Listen to What the Hack with Adam Levin for spooky (but funny) stories of digital crime.

No bones about it: The $19.6b joint-replacement industry uses outdated methods, leading to 100,000 surgeries failing annually. Monogram aims to fix it with precision surgical robots + personalized implants. Invest before they go public.*

Way 2 good 2 miss: Wayfair’s Way Day sale is back for 2 days only, with massive markdowns on all things home. Get more with savings up to 80% off.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

Picdoku: Who can resist a Halloween-themed picdoku? Play it here.

Find the pattern

What connects these clues? We know it looks hard, but you can do this!

1. Barnes & Noble / books

2. Disney / family

3. Ralph Lauren / polo

4. Campbell’s / soups

Receive a FREE Excel Dictionary Bundle of your choice when you buy one of Excel Dictionary’s Shortcut Guide Mouse Pads. Get ’em while you can—this offer ends 10/28.

On The Crazy Ones: The madness of the Gas app, the dos and don’ts of laying off employees, and the secrets of QSBS and how it can save you millions. Listen or watch here.

Got the finance basics down and ready to start investing? Money with Katie is here to help. Check out her Investing 101 series today.

We all know about the great “return-to-office” debate, but what else do employees expect in today’s work environment? Join us today at noon ET to learn more.

The companies own the .com domain names of the words they’re paired with. So books.com redirects to Barnes & Noble, family.com to Disney, etc.

H/t to the game show Only Connect for the inspo.