Plastic Recycling is a Fraud, Report Finds

[Didymus 34,380]

The Guardian reports on the Center for Climate Integrity's report about the potentially illegal promotion of plastic recycling as a viable and environmentally friendly solution to plastic waste.

The idea of single-use plastics and the concept of product disposability was invented in the 1950s by plastics producers to ensure continual capital growth. As plastics disposal became more controversial in the following decades, however, the industry came up with a new strategy: to make the public believe plastic could be more environmentally friendly.

The CII report exposes how plastic recycling was designed as a ruse to market plastic products as more sustainable, even though the plastics industry knew as early as the mid-1980s that it was (1) not practically or economically viable; (2) only a short delay towards disposal rather than an actual diminishment of solid waste.

Campaigns that have communicated to the public that recycled products can be continuously recycled (ex. the claim that plastic bottles can be recycled over and over again) might have violated several consumer protection laws, the Center claims.

Furthermore, industry groups' more recent promotion of chemical recycling (which breaks down plastic into molecules that are then used to make new plastic) has been shown to be another consumer manipulation, as this process is more energy intensive and pollutive than traditional plastic recycling.

As public scrutiny about the oil and petrochemical industry's climate impact grows, Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity claims "the first step in solving the problem is holding the companies accountable". Brian Frosh, former attorney general for the state of Maryland, describes the report as surprisingly in-depth, believing it could lead to a lawsuit.

The report comes a year after the New York state sued PepsiCo for misleading consumers about the effectiveness of recycling, and a year after the Environmental Protection Agency expressed concern about the misleading use of the recycling symbol (the "chasing arrows") on plastic products.

From a 2023 report by the New York Times: "Roughly 5 to 6 percent of plastic in the United States was recycled in 2021, a drop from 9.5 percent in 2014, according to a 2022 study of recycling facilities by Greenpeace, an environmental advocacy organization. ...

“Your average person wants to do the right thing. They look at the stuff that they bought from the store, they see recycling symbols on it and they put it in the recycling bin.” But most of those items are not being recycled, Mr. Hocevar [oceans campaign director at Greenpeace U.S.A.] said. "The waste overwhelms recycling centers instead, diverting effort away from paper, aluminum and glass items that are easier to recycle."

[HEARTSTOP 3,154]

I have found news back before 2020 saying the same thing...

As usual, putting responsability on the common people has been the strategy of the billionaires since... forever.

[palma 8,909]

To all the UK monsters: everything you so meticulously sort for recycling ends up in some Turkish river basin 

Multi-billion dollar companies guilt everyday people into using paper straws and do ABSOLUTELY nothing for the environment and they actively fund "activists" who vandalize museums to make environmentalists look like some mentally ill people 

[Nine Inch Heels 853]

Haven’t we known this for awhile lol

[Didymus 34,380]

2 minutes ago, starcell said:

Haven’t we known this for awhile lol

Yes. But legal prosecution has remained difficult or seemed impossible. That is changing in recent years.

[Gagaism 12,471]

This is not a surprise. Listen, I’ve been working in hospitality for a while and the amount of food waste and supposedly recycling stuff I’ve seen thrown on whatever bins they want to is just INSANE. 
It’s really hard when we are on the base of a pyramid system that we literally have no control about what people on the top of it are doing. 
The only thing left is basically common sense and your own intentions towards everything else, literally. And sadly. I would say that 90% of the population or even more won’t be ever well educated about those things because it’s convenient for this ****ed up system -  or they literally don’t give a flying ****

[high culture 2,362]

Yep they've known for decades that recycling is making the problem worse than better, I watched a documentary about it a few years ago. I only recycle glass and metal because those can actually be melted down. Plastic can only be recycled once and it produces more pollution than making it fresh. 

[Economy 52,843]

1 hour ago, HEARTSTOP said:

I have found news back before 2020 saying the same thing...

As usual, putting responsability on the common people has been the strategy of the billionaires since... forever.

Tbh this is nothing new. Weve known for some time that only like 10% of plastics ACTUALLY get recycled. 

 

And the way the industry does platic packaging doesnt even make it easy to recycle either... its often got waxy coatings, or paper or dye on it that make reycling challenging and even when it makes it to a recycling plant much of it just gets tossed cuz its not practicle to recycle

 

For example throw a plastic juice container in recycling with heavily glued paper on it. Do u think the workers will go through the trouble of trying to take it off? They wont, it just gets tossed

[Morphine Prince 109,654]

If we had any balls as a society the people responsible would be tried for Crimes Against Humanity and Crimes Against Planet Earth.