'They lied': plastics producers deceived public about recycling, report reveals

[erronis]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/15/recycling-plastics-producers-report

Companies knew for decades recycling was not viable but promoted it regardless, Center for Climate Integrity study finds

Plastic producers have known for more than 30 years that recycling is not an economically or technically feasible plastic waste management solution. That has not stopped them from promoting it, according to a new report.

“The companies lied,” said Richard Wiles, president of fossil-fuel accountability advocacy group the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), which published the report. “It’s time to hold them accountable for the damage they’ve caused.”

Plastic, which is made from oil and gas, is notoriously difficult to recycle. Doing so requires meticulous sorting, since most of the thousands of chemically distinct varieties of plastic cannot be recycled together. That renders an already pricey process even more expensive. Another challenge: the material degrades each time it is reused, meaning it can generally only be reused once or twice.

The industry has known for decades about these existential challenges, but obscured that information in its marketing campaigns, the report shows.

And their lying prevented us from finding other/better solutions. They caused lost opportunities as well as added burdens to waste collection systems and customers. Will they be fined or thrown in jail? Hah.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. In the 70s there were small time glass recyclers

Two guys and a couple pickup trucks. You'd hand them your box of glass and they'd stomp it in the truck bed and drive off to the glass melting operation.

[Backseat Driver]

15. Maybe, but single-use plastics...just NO!

Our family tries to remember to shop at and re-use our multiple-use fabric and paper bags and boxes. I've probably reused a glass sun tea container (yes, it has a plastic lid and spout parts) and the same older commercial ice tea glass bottles every week for the past 5 years to make herbal tea w/filtered water. I've switched to recycle-able paper/fabric TP and began using eco-friendly strip laundry products on subscriptions that return some of their profitable products to other environmental programs. I use fewer cosmetics in little plastic bottles and tubes. I'd be an early adapter to hybrid and EV cars, but none are in my price range to replace new a 2002 vehicle that is still looking good but needs repair. The presence of inflammation-making nano plastic particles in newborns is really scary; those "forever chemicals" promote chronic disease along the whole food chain. Might not matter, anyhow, as CO2 models keep rising because of the planet's burning of fossil-fuels, the better to recycle meltable plastics?....Oh well...guess I've lived the best life possible and now await becoming the twinkle of energy that came to be known as me, LOL! I beg forgiveness for the errors made in my 70+ year existence, grandkid--just don't let democracy die in America.

We have a recycler come once a week for paper and plastics - The company is very picky what can be taken; garbage et all goes in a compactor and then hauled off to the landfill of plastic bags full; bulky throw-away items of metal or mixed materials are scavenged for profit that are picked over and destined for landfills separately.

[MadameButterfly]

2. Judith Enck of Beyond Plastics has been saying this for years

The solution is to find substitutes for plastic. Start with the low hanging fruit--we use so much plastic on things that don't need it and even where we don't want it like organic veggies. We over-package to keep everything squeeky clean. The hard choice will eventually come: what to do about house replacement windows, life-saving medical devices, etc. Let's dispense with the stupid stuff like plastic bags, plastic drink bottles (instead of glass or cardboard cartons), etc. ASAP!

[ProfessorGAC]

5. So Have I

The fundamentals of polymer chemistry are an inherent barrier to recycling.
They may have lied, but it's been public knowledge for at least a decade than under 10% of plastic collected for recycle actually gets reused.
That's why I've long been in favor if a return to paper milk cartons, which would also work with juices, laundry liquids, softeners, water, ...
And, with far less plastic, a reusable pump for paper carton dish soap, handsoap, shampoo, etc.
And paper is actually recycled in large proportions.

[forgotmylogin]

12. Glass is tried and true.

And easily recyclable and re-purposed. I usually have 2-4 empty jars with lids I save in case I need to store things in them.

So is aluminum, with which they can make light sturdy aluminum bottles and "party cups" (solo-style cups) which can be used multiple times and washed, then recycled.

Paper and cardboard similarly. Many products can be sold in waxed paper containers or tetra-packs. Even if these are not recycled, they break down and won't last thousands of years in landfill.

They should sell all spices and baking supplies in cardboard cylinders the way they do salt.

[MadameButterfly]

22. The ideas are endless once we put our minds to it

but we won't see the urgency until mountains of plastic are on our doorstep

[pandr32]

3. I wish they could be held accountable.

Plastic producers should also have to deal with plastic waste. Part and parcel.

[Igel]

4. They sometimes lied. And recently stopped entirely.

At least for-profit companies have.

A couple of years ago a student started a recycling club on campus. I told him he was wasting his time to collect plastics. His neighborhood has recycling containers, you need to sort your trash, so it must be worthwhile. Save the planet. I told him that plastic in the US wasn't recycled, we used to ship plastic to China for recycling but China said it didn't want our trash any more--so all the sorting and use of separate bins is a waste of time. If he wanted to recycle something, recycle metals.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/03/13/702501726/where-will-your-plastic-trash-go-now-that-china-doesnt-want-it

OP: They lied for 30 years.

Fact check:

And it wasn't just the U.S. Some 70 percent of the world's plastic waste went to China – about 7 million tons a year.

Numerous Chinese millionaires were minted as recycling businesses started and blossomed. Sure, they paid for the world's plastic and paper trash, but they made far more money from processing it and selling the resulting raw materials.

That stopped in 2019.

[Warpy]

6. Clear plastics and hard white plastics

basically numbers 1 and 2 because they can't handle the dyed stuff. Found that out about 10 years ago and was pissed off. I wish more people knew, they might make better choices. I did.

[PatrickforB]

21. Don't have any hearts left but would have given you one just for your signature line. It is outstanding and very true!

The problem is the profits-over-people legal doctrine that drives Wall Street.

[Historic NY]

7. Up by us the send it to a recycler plant

but they are picky . It is expensive to recycle because more energy is needs than starting from scratch. The best is stuff that will make compost.

[2naSalit]

8. It costs a lot less...

To pretend to do something than to actually do it for megacorps.

[Fritz Walter]

9. Meanwhile, local waste management is punishing customers for mixing bad plastic with good in the recycling bin

Got a warning tag a few months back. Jacksonville waste management agency sent an inspector around, one stop ahead of the big truck. My gawd! You'd think my mixing plastic wrap (shopping bags, food wrappings, etc.) and foam products with empty jugs, etc. was single-handedly causing the end of life as we know it! The nasty-tag said that if it happens again, my recycling pick-ups would be cancelled. So, those lighter plastic items go into household waste and will end up filling the landfills with their toxicity.

[forgotmylogin]

13. Most grocery stores have a light-plastic recycle bin.

Again, they could be just upending this into the dumpster for all we know, but I collect all my torn up bags and bread-wrapper style plastic and throw them in there when I go to the store.

[Fritz Walter]

18. That's what I do NOW.

Despite my promise to boycott Publix stores (ever since their corporation made a six-figure donation to moRon DeSepsis' PAC a couple years ago), I do visit the one in my neighborhood. After stuffing the bags and styro into their bins, I usually don't go into the store... unless, of course, I need to take a leak.
Just stop, drop and roll-on!

[MadameButterfly]

23. Judith Enck says "Don't wish-cycle" because

adding stuff that can't be recycled makes the stuff that can't be recycled more expensive to process. So at least your people are serious about recycling and givng you some useful information.

Once problem is that the triangular recycling symbol is stamped onto many products that can't actually be recycling, which means it is making it harder to be responsible and we all have to educate ourselves. How many people are going to do that?

[NNadir]

10. Nevertheless, it is technically feasible, if not practiced, to recycle...

...them as carbon by steam reforming or pyrolysis by the agency of clean and sustainable thermal energy, of which there is one and only one form, the inordinately vilified agency of nuclear heat. In this case they might be transformed as constituents of unsorted municipal waste, dealing with the entire issue of landfills.

Carbon closed cycles are technically feasible, as remarked by Nobel Laureate George Olah over a decade ago, but not without carbon free clean energy.

Syn gas, a mixture of hydrogen and carbon oxides, is a remarkably flexible intermediate which is currently provided by the steam reforming of dangerous fossil fuels, chiefly dangerous natural gas, but in China by dangerous coal.

Municipal waste can only supply a fraction of the world demand for syn gas, but to the extent it does so, it can solve serious waste problems. Such a use would help with the highly desirable goal of process intensification in connection with primary nuclear heat.

[MadameButterfly]

24. It sounds like you have scientific knowledge of this stuff but

I must admit I don't really understand. Are yyou saying there's a way to make plastic go away? At the cost of energy use and pollution?

[NNadir]

27. The scientific literature is rich with papers on the topic of steam reforming of plastics and to a lesser extent...

...other carbon based waste forms, for example paper.

This involves heating carbonaceous materials with high pressure steam, and is well known. It is, in fact, how the overwhelming majority of hydrogen is produced on this planet, by the steam reformation of dangerous fossil fuels, despite the commonly accepted lie that hydrogen is "green."

I covered this here: A Giant Climate Lie: When they're selling hydrogen, what they're really selling is fossil fuels.

There is a state of water known as "supercritical water" which water above a temperature and pressure at which one cannot distinguish between liquid and gaseous states. This temperature, called the "critical temperature" is 374.4°C and a pressure of 221 MPa (about 218 times atmospheric pressure) called the "critical pressure." Under these conditions water reacts with most carbon compounds, including but not limited to dangerous fossil fuels, to produce carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide and hydrogen. It would also work for plastics. This mixture is called "syn gas" from which basically every commodity chemical obtained from petroleum or a close substitute can be made.

The question is the source of heat; this process is designated as "endothermic" - it absorbs heat. If the heat is sourced from nuclear energy, the process is essentially pollution free. If the heat is obtained by combustion, it's dirty and one may as well just incinerate the plastic.

I covered the use of supercritical water for desalination purposes in this space here: The Energy Required to Supply California's Water with Zero Discharge Supercritical Desalination.

In this setting, the salt free supercritical water obtained from seawater could be reacted with municipal waste (or waste biomass) to be essentially carbon negative. I note that under these conditions microplastics now polluting the ocean would be oxidized while reducing water to hydrogen. The process would clean the ocean of waste plastic floating there.

Some of my posts in this place can be fairly technical, but I hope this helps. Thanks for asking.

[MadameButterfly]

28. It will take me some time to read and understand but I will

nad appreciate the information

[Pepsidog]

11. Where I live I just read the town's year end update which said recycling costs have risen from $3 million a year to $7m

[LiberalArkie]

14. All one has to do is look at Coca Cola and Pepsi.

They had the hastle of bringing the bottle that contained the colas back to the bottling plant and washing and sterilizing them and then refilling and taking them to the stores. BUT

The sugar based product would not work in any know plastic to get rid of the glass.

A company had just developed a new sweetener, and the great thing is that it can be used in a plastic container.

Thus, the Cola companies could now stop paying for the bottles to be moved around the country and leave the disposal of containers to any one but them. Let the cities and states pay to have them disposed of. The milk company's thought the same way, no more delivery people leaving glass bottles at home and picking them back up.

[MadameButterfly]

25. Coca cola had a classic beautiful bottle that was a bonafied work of art

and known the world over. No one could compete with their signature bottle, the value in advertising alone was enormous. Now we have ugly plastic stuff. I expect coke hasn't gottten cheaper and the CEO's were rich enough back then too. Only difference: the world is uglier and lots of plastic waste.

Milkmen were an iconic neighborhood fixture at a time when small local dairies were profitable.

As long as CEOs who want more yachts are making all the decisions, things get worse for society and the planet. WE have to organzie like people did to get rid of polystyrene containers at MacDonald's.

[SergeStorms]

16. Corporate America lying to the public?????

Sure. Next you'll be telling me that Donald Trump isn't the benevolent, patriotic American republicans insist he is. 🙄 I'm not falling for that lot of codswallop.

As if it's necessary

[Kid Berwyn]

17. Worked for the Tobacco Lobby and smoking...

...and the Lead Lobby with paint and gasoline...and the Petroleum Industry with the global environment...Big Business knows lying woks. And saves them money.

Another Big Lie is they care.

[Lulu KC]

19. Wow--not that this is about me, but thanks!

I used to work in something that was related to recycling and was asked to do a presentation to a neighborhood group last year. I am retired and it had been years since I was professionally involved. As I did my research, it was clear. By the time I gave the presentation all I could say was "don't buy anything you don't need, especially if it's plastic." (And p.s. good luck with that.) My Debbie Downer approach, though I tried to lighten it up, did not get applause.
I WAS RIGHT. Thanks for posting this.
Also, as I researched, I learned about how many recycling facilities catch on fire because of batteries hidden in greeting cards and vaping pens.
Bleak, very bleak, but truth FTW.

[PatrickforB]

20. Sure they knew. The misled us because the companies that make the plastics are generally publicly traded.

This means that the fiduciary responsibility of all corporate officers in these publicly traded companies is

ONLY

to generate shareholder profits.

That's it.

The doctrine is called 'shareholder primacy' and has been how Wall Street rolls since the 1919 Michigan Supreme Court ruling against Henry Ford in favor of the Dodge brothers, who had sued Ford because they felt that him raising the wages of his factory workers enough for them to afford to purchase the cars they built deprived them of PROFITS to which they were entitled as shareholders. And they won.

This means that the interests of workers, consumers and the earth itself (not to mention truth in what is euphemistically called on here M$M) takes a distant second place to shareholder profits.

The ONLY way to hold these corporate Wall Street greed lizards accountable is to change the laws around corporate governnance away from shareholder primacy and to a stakeholder approach, whereby the interests of workers, consumers, and the environment are given equal weight to shareholder profits.

[MadameButterfly]

26. Wow. I didn't know about 'Shareholder PRimacy" and ironic that a 100 year old law

is what rule. And that it's enshrined into law that a company can't be compassionate and responsible. This is at the heart of so many issues. THanks for sharing.

[mcar]

29. Our local trash service stopped collecting glass

a few years ago. We've been trying - hard - to reduce our plastic use because of this information. But it's hard. We recycle everything we can and save the glass to bring to other county recycling centers that take it.

We recently started composting and will be setting up a spring garden soon.

Still, we are awash in plastic. It's discouraging.

[elocs]

30. Companies told people what they wanted to hear about recycling plastics.

And people unquestioningly swallowed it all hook, line, and sinker.