According to Greenpeace's survey, only two types of plastic are widely accepted at the nation's 375 material recovery facilities.

Plastics need to need to meet the definition of recyclable that is used by the Federal Trade Commission (FDA) or the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's (EMF) new plastic economy initiative, the report found.

The most common plastics, bottles and jugs, fall well below the 30 percent recycling rate needed to meet the definition by the two organizations, while none of the others, like plastic lids and cups, are accepted by either organization.

This means that major corporations, such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Unilever, that tout their plastics as 100 percent recyclable are only adding to the problem.