Transporting aluminum also has a comparatively higher environmental impact. Aluminum is heavier than plastic. Aluminum cans weigh about 50% more than plastic equivalents. This means more fuel is burned every time a can is shipped, driven, or flown from a producer to a distributor. That adds up to increased fossil fuel emissions.

Does aluminum being recyclable really help? Only if it’s disposed of properly. And only about one-third of aluminum packaging in this country ends up being recycled. The rest is simply replaced with new aluminum, leading to another cycle of mining.

In fact, much aluminum is littered. There are more discarded aluminum cans littering the environment than plastic bottles.

The whole debate over bans and which material is better than the other misses the bigger point: If we recycled plastic and aluminum at higher rates, then the litter and pollution problem would go away.

The kind of plastic used in soda, juice and water bottles (plastic No. 1, or PET), as well as aluminum, are highly recyclable materials accepted in nearly every community in the country.

We just have to focus on getting these products in the recycling bin.

There are already numerous and exciting new developments on the recycling front. Just last month, researchers in Sydney discovered a new process that could biodegrade even the toughest forms of plastic.

This better approach would consist of (1) improving the rapidly developing recycling science, (2) funding a public-private messaging campaign to drive a recycling culture and (3) improving our recycling infrastructure.