The good news is, our collective efforts to reduce, reuse, recycle and compost have made San Francisco the most successful big city in America at reducing what goes to landfill.

The bad news is, plastics have become a huge issue for all of us. “60 Minutes” recently aired a powerful segment on plastic waste and its impact on the environment, along with the (as yet unsuccessful) efforts to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. A portion of that feature was filmed at Recycle Central at Pier 96 in San Francisco, which is Recology’s largest and most technologically advanced recycling facility.

For decades, Recology has captured plastic materials through our recycling programs in California, Oregon and Washington state, and marketed much of that material for reuse, principally throughout Asia. In other words, we had a place to send plastics.

However, a number of global policy reforms — most notably China’s National Sword program, which banned mixed plastic imports — have closed nearly all end markets for many plastic products.

Even before this door was closed, we always struggled with what to do with many of the polymers that are being introduced into the waste stream — without regard for secondary-use markets.

The European Union’s recent action to cut plastic use, in a bid to reduce marine debris, is a step in the right direction on how to deal with the issue from a policy perspective. The EU’s efforts — which are focused on mandatory recycled content in all plastic bottles and outright bans on certain single-use plastic products — deserve consideration here in the United States.

We have followed the work of innovative companies that have attempted to reverse-engineer the plastics manufacturing process, and reclaim the petroleum products from which the materials had been created. Unfortunately, none of these efforts has proven scalable — not with the enormous influx of single-use plastic materials into the marketplace.

We even tried to unlock the secret ourselves. For five years, Recology employed a chemical engineer with 25 years of plastics manufacturing experience. He was given the mission to find something that we can do to with single-use plastic waste; his work netted no practical results.

The simple fact is, there is just too much plastic — and too many different types of plastics — being produced; and there exist few, if any, viable end markets for the material. Which makes reuse impossible.

We are not out to destroy the plastics industry, but we must embrace change.

Recology would be a willing partner with plastic manufacturers to develop technologies that lead to the genuine recycling of plastic products. We can think of no better way for the industry to respond to the problem of reducing plastic wastes than offering solutions that work, can be scalable, and implemented in communities around the world to help to solve this plastics crisis. Last week, I sent a letter to Cal Dooley, CEO of the American Chemistry Council, to invite the plastics industry to do just that.

That said, I do feel we are nearly out of time, as the planet’s oceans and wildlife are increasingly overrun by plastic waste. If the plastics industry is unable to step forward with a set of policies and programs that reverses these unfortunate trends, Recology will work to place a comprehensive policy on the next statewide California ballot — building off the EU model. We are prepared to commit $1 million toward a signature-gathering effort to that end and will work with all who are willing to move this effort forward.

With plastics, as with so much else, California may need to lead the way.

Michael J. Sangiacomo is president and chief executive officer of Recology, Inc., a 100-percent employee-owned company providing waste and recycling services to San Francisco since 1920. To join Recology’s campaign to reduce plastic waste and to learn more about the company’s efforts to reduce, reuse, recycle and compost, go to www.Recology.com.