by Anne MacLennan
There is a crisis of plastic pollution, affecting oceans and waterways, soil, air and wildlife. Microplastics are also now a part of the human diet. The Center for Climate Integrity blames the petrochemical and plastics industries as it details an intentional campaign of fraud and deception carried out over decades in their newly-released report, The Fraud of Plastic Recycling: How Big Oil and the plastics industry deceived the public for decades and caused the plastic waste crisis.
Section headings include: ‘The Majority of Plastics Cannot Be Recycled—They Never Have Been and Never Will Be’, ‘Petrochemical Companies Created and Perpetuated Recycling as a False Solution to Plastic Waste Management’, ‘The plastics industry sold the public on disposability (1950s to 1960s)’, and ‘Petrochemical Companies Ran—and Continue to Run—a Decades-Long Campaign of Deception and Disinformation on Plastic Recycling’.
The report is a disturbing read. The authors explain technical and economic obstacles to recycling most plastics and give a well-referenced history of industry manipulation of public, policymakers and regulators over many years. They even share handwritten communications from early days to illustrate some of the reasoning then.
An example of industry response to the public comes from the 1950s. Plastic bags for dry cleaning were selling well and promoted as durable and re-useable – until about 80 children in the US were suffocated by the bags, triggering an outcry from the public. Desperate to maintain and increase production, the new message in 1959 was that customers should “never keep a plastic bag after it has served its intended usefulness”.”Destroy it … and throw it away.” To do otherwise “is the worst mistake a mother could make.” It then became the parents’ fault and shifted the focus of concern.
But these industries are still desperate to persuade us to use ever-more plastic. Plastics are generally produced from fossil fuels. As renewable sources displace fossil fuels for energy, continued expansion of oil and gas extraction can be ‘justified’ by petrochemical companies to supply expanding plastic production – if they can continue to con us into accepting it.
The Co-op provides bins for customers to deposit their soft plastics, which they say will be recycled into plastic bags. Why is the Co-op so keen to provide soft plastic recycling? Is it to soothe our consciences so that we don’t feel as bad about buying so much of our food encased in single-use plastic? They will be pressured by the plastics producers and by real and imagined regulations requiring excess packaging for perceived hygiene. But a turnip wrapped in plastic is not healthier than a naked turnip.
Consider signing up for The Big Plastic Count (11-17th March, see above) as a means of pressuring the UK Government and supermarkets to take part in the international effort to stop plastic pollution at source.