no. >> this is "nightline". >> tonight trash, the secret life of plastic recycling. what happens to all your bags, an abc investigation spending six months across the country. >> at a wal-mart in west hills california. >> i'm in san antonio texas drooping these plastic bags. >> here's one of the drop box. >> we used dozens of trackers to follow the plastic. >> what percentage that gets put in recycling bins do you think is recycled. >> the surprising results and the fallout for wal-mart and target. plus ♪ queen ever disco,s the trail blazing super star behind hits like she works hard for the

money ♪ ♪ she works hard for the money so you better treat her right ♪ >> the intimate new documentary about donna summer. >> i have a secret life. you're looking at me but what you see is not what i am. >> what the public saw. >> how did you feel inside about what everybody was doing, making you the sex goddess of the world. >> and didn't see. >> she wasn't just this cardboard cutout. she was a real human with real humanity and artistry. >> reporter: and controversy regarding the "i feel love" singer that her daughter addresses for the first time. ♪ "nightline" will be right back. ♪ thanks to skyrizi, i'm on my way with clearer skin. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. and skyrizi is just 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine, or plan to.

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♪ >> good evening, thank you for joining us. we begin tonight with an eye-opening investigation. a reality check on recycling. united states produces more plastic waste than any other nation on earth. and those plastic bags you get at the grocery store are a prime culprit. you may think you're doing the right thing by recycling them, but think again. here's abc's matt gutman. . >> reporter: late last year we started this project to try to find out how plastic bags and plastic film are recycled in america and months later, late at night, it led us here to worn

of the oldest incinerators in the country. we live in a world filled with plastic and many loves its convenience. but have you thought about where it all goes? >> a lot of people don't think about what happens. >> they have zero idea. >> reporter: to get a better idea of just what is hamming, abc news spent the past six months examining how plastic bags are recycled, teaming up with nine abc stations and the largest investigation of its kind. deploying dozens of trackers to see just how the plastic bag recycling system in this country is working. one of the greatest challenges is what to do specifically with plastic bags. they are difficult to recycle and are also among the top sources of plastic pollution worldwide. >> goes in a variety of things. it is an essential product. >> reporter: at least ten states passed legislation limiting the

use of plastic bags but americans still use a hundred billion bags every year. the american chemistry council is a trade organization representing many industries including plastic manufacturers, and heavily against limits op plastic production. >> plastic helps us live better lives in countless ways and what makes it available is its potential for sustainability. >> reporter: in 2011 they introduced repsych practicing, or app, as a way to reduce plastic waste. >> what happens to these bags and ration they can be recycled into new products, beautiful back door decking, playground equipment, shopping carts and bragsing reporter: with sight says rapp is an initiative that works with retailers as well as local and state government encourage people to recycle plastic bags. the vice-president of the

plastics division joshua sat down with us. >> we want to make it simple easy and convenient for consumers so they can do the right thing that they want to do which is recycle more products. >> reporter: as part of that initiative they provide a nationwide directory of retail stores like wal-mart and target that shows where you can bring used plastic bags and films to be recycled and the stores worked with third parties to pick up the bags. >> our vision is pretty simple. we door store drop-offs whether wal-mart or target or your grocery store as the bridge to consumers. >> reporter: we wanted to see how that vision is working so abc news, along with nine of our affiliates and own stations across the country, assembled bundles of recyclable plastic bags, each of them containing a metal tracking device super glued inside wrapped in several layers of plastic bags. >> we glued it down it's nice and secure. >> they fanned out among ten

strays including wal-mart and department stores with the biggest retailers and stores with bins for recycling. >> i'm outside a wal-mart in california. >> wal-mart here in austin. >> i am in san antonio texas i'm going to drop these plastic bags. >> okay, here's one of the drop box. >> reporter: after the drop-offs, we spent months monitoring each tracker's lotion, multiple times a day. here's what one of those air tagged bags. >> trackers pinning whenever a mobile device was near. we on their jerney and determined they likely did not encounter plastic bag sorting en route one that could have potentially separated a tracker from a bag. in all we lost 43 trackers, 26 were in sin rateers seven last pinged at transfer station that don't recycle or sort plastic bags, six pinged at the store

where they were dropped off and haven't been heard from in months. for three others we can't definitively say where they ended up. and three trackers shipped to the other side of the world to southeast asia. you may wonder if any pinged from here in the u.s. that say they are involved with recycling plastic bags. answer only four did. our investigation shedding light on the disturbing reality that the vast majority of the plastic we hope is recycled is not. >> what do you make of those numbers. >> plastic film today in particular is designed to be recyclable. isist efficient? the answer's no. >> the most recent epa data from 2018 shows less than 10% of plastic bags in the u.s. are actually recycled. wal-mart and target declined our interview requests as well as question after stores for plastic bags they collect for recycling.

in a statement target said their attention is to make it easy for guests to recycle plastic bags and committed to looking at our processes to improve our recycling efforts. wal-mart says they offer it in store for plastic bags as an option for customers who may not have curbside recycling. and that they are pursuing initiatives to include the use of single use plastic including plastic bags. after learning what we observed on our trackers about four hours before, the research company that managed the online drop-off promoted by rapp told us they removed all wal-marts and targets from their list until they can confirm that their store drop-off film and bag material is being recycled rather than land filled or incinerated. for years, the american chemistry council has been presenting the national rapp program and the store drop-off system as a way to help reduce

the amount of plastic going to landfills and incinerators by providing consumers with a convenient way to recycle plastic bags and films. >> what percentage of what gets put in recycling bin actually is recycled. >> not enough if we're being frank with ourselves. the systems that we have today that governor recycling are way outdated. frankly quite broken. it's not streamlined so not only is there not a role for private sector investment there's a very important role for government. >> why don't you go to a place that he on- >> that suit you're wearing probably made out of a plastic called polyester natural gas and oil that pen probably has a little bit of plastic. the microphone that you're using also has a plastic. >> reporter: and your point is, plastic is in everything meaning we should produce more without

any guardrails. >> no. like i said, 23 two utes, the question we're asking you is that you are marketing as the pan see a to plastic. the. >> rap is not the end all be all. it was a concept. >> reporter: chances are you have a lot of material like that. >> the, a rcc's recognize's rap with house of location. but he kept referring to rap as a single in seattle. >> rap is in one jurisdiction to show a proof of concept, that we could scale visits across the united states. >> seattle? >> seattle was the area. so you're not really working with retailers as you're staying. >> i think your premise. >> no i'm confused you're not trying to work with -- >> not after every interview. >> after the interview it was still not clear how it works.

a few minutes later they asked to come back and update us with new information. >> here's what i can tell you about rap that i want to be crystal clear about. okay? what rap does is it sponsors a director of all the store drop-off facilities in the united states. the seattle project, which i ought to be very crystal clear about, was something that was above and beyond what we normally do in that project. we didn't just do it in seattles we did it in vancouver washington, milwaukee, hartford connecticut. as additional areas where we went above and beyond sponsoring the director. >> we sat down for friday minutes you never mentioned those other cities. >> i didn't know those cities. >> we then asked about the web site with an initiative with retailers that have recycling bins with trackers. >> is the plastic program at retailers working? >> it doesn't work to the scale that we want, i think i've been

very clear about that. >> reporter: the acc is telling us it's changed. four curbside recycling for plastic bags, an issue and was originally designed to address. over our months of following where plastic bags and our country end up, in talking with dozens of people involved in the radio psy all agree on one thing, the current recycling program isn't working well enough. >> juju: our thanks to matt. the full investigation trash: the secret life of plastic recycling is now streaming hulu >> up next hits like she works hard for the money makes her a sensation. but there was a whole lot more of donna summer. we take a look at documentary pause pause

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♪ >> byron: she topped the music charts for years, a powerful combination of sound and sex appeal that made her a breakout star in the disco era. but a new documentary shedding light on the light and legacy of donna summer both onstage and off. here's abc's lindsey davis ♪ so let's dance the last dance ♪ >> reporter: in the late 70s donna summers ruled the disco chart with hits like last dance featured in the movie thank god it's friday. the smash song i feel love so

a veight one special singing it decades later. >> i remember when i feel love came on in studio 54 you stopped in your tracks, what is this. >> reporter: her music, much of which she wrote herself earned summer the nickname the queen of disco. >> lot of clubs had disco balls being sort of the queen of the disco made me that sort of synonymous with me. >> reporter: now a new hbo documentary, love to love you donna summer peels back the curtain on the late singer's rise to fame and her personal life. co-directed by her daughter brooklyn and oscar winner roger ross williams. >> does everybody here have somebody to love? ♪ no? love me for right now okay? >> reporter: you talk about in the documentary that it was really a persona when she got on stage and so when was she most herself? >> she was able to be the donna summer that everybody knew because it was a part of her.

it just it wasn't everything of her and she would want people to understand that she wasn't just this cardboard cutout. >> she was a layered, complex artist. that's who she was. >> i have a et life. you're looking at me but what you see is not what i am. >> she really felt called to this dream of hers, this destiny she felt that she had from a really young age. >> reporter: documentary features never before seen personal photos and footage much of it shot by summer herself and narrated by family and close friends. >> bee discovered audio tapes of donna from when she was doing her autobiography. we used that audio as the base to really string out these stories. there's no experts. there's no mousse col gists. it's the story you would never hear from the ideas. >> a story only the family could tell. >> you have a much deeper appreciation for her as the singer that you know but also as the artist the song writer the

painter full of package of who she was. >> she was raised in a devoutly christian family and began singing at church at eight years old later joining a band called the ceo at 18. >> all the band was white. i was the crow ♪ . >> byron: while working in germany in 1975, summer scored her breakout hit love to love you baby. but she felt uneasy about being known for the sexy anthem as she explained to diane sawyer. >> how did you feel inside about what everybody was doing making you the sex godest of the world. how did you feel inside? >> i felt like -- it would be like making carol burnett the sex godest of the world that ace the equivalent of me being the sex godest. >> reporter: but you did did it. >> i was an actress. >> reporter: she won five grammys and scored 14 top 10

hits including "hard for the money" the video the first by a black female artist ever to air on mtv, the anthem about working women after a real life moment. >> i was at the grammy's a party and i went to the lady's room and on the way in i saw a lady sitting at the bar and she was asleep, she was a bathroom attendant and my fors thought was she works hard for her money. >> reporter: some credit the gay community for her success but during the aids she had pfrjts and steve, is for your sin.dam >> she definitely said adam and steve. there was misunderstanding about exactly what happened number one but also the fact that they didn't address it head on immediately. >> as a gay man, black gay man, grew up in the church, i

understood that sort of push and pull and conflict that donna went through t i was really offended by those comments and i think when you watch the film and you understand, you know, who she is and where she came from and the complexities of that, you understand why she would make that comment. and then her deep regret. >> offstage summer struggled to balance her life as a performer and parent. >> your mom has said that she never really felt maternal. emma curious how she was as a mother. >> it's funny that she said that because she was very maternal. she was very nurturing and very warm to me and my sisters. >> my children are my children. and my husband and my family h i loved to perform it's extremely but it doesn't bring me what they bring me. >> reporter: what's her legacy. >> she was a trailblazer. she really was somebody that was always looking forward whether in music or in life and i think

that her music is still timely today because of that. >> byron: our thanks to lindsey. the documentary "love to love you: donna summer" is now on hbo and streaming on max. up next when "nightline" co-anchor juju chang with some words of wisdom for the class of '23. ♪ emerge tremfyant®. with tremfya®, most people saw 90% clearer skin at 16 weeks. the majority of people saw 90% clearer skin even at 5 years. tremfya® is the first medication of its kind also approved for adults with active psoriatic arthritis... ...and it's 6 doses a year after 2 starter doses. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. emerge tremfyant®. with tremfya®...

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♪ >> byron: and, finally tonight, oh, the places you'll go. commencement season is upon us and my co-anchor juju chang got a chance to southern university's class of 2023 and as she so often inspires us, no surprise she inspired them.

>> as a journalist i know that it often feels like the world is on fire, that there's chaos everywhere, war and climates disasters, mass shootings and bitter divisions on everything from gun safety to reproductive rights. but what i would ask of you today is don't turn away. the careiest thing in the world to me is appear think. i'm asking you to care. >> congratulations to all the