The plastic industry knowingly pushed recycling myth for decades, new report finds

John Yang:

On average, the world produces 430 million metric tons of plastic every year. The United States alone produces 10s of millions of tons of plastic waste annually. Yet on average, in the United States, only about five to 6 percent of plastic is recycled. Ali Rogin digs into a new report covering the plastic industries, tactics to push recycling and avoid regulation.

Ali Rogin:

A new report by the Center for Climate Integrity and environmentalist group says newly uncovered statements from oil and plastics executives underscore the industry's decades long secret skepticism about the viability and efficacy of recycling.

The authors of the report reviewed old investigations and new documents, including previously unknown assertions from industry executives. In 1994, one Exxon chemical executive put the industry support for plastics recycling in blunt terms, saying, quote, we are committed to the activities, but not committed to the results.

Another representative from DuPont noted in 1992, that recycling goals were set, knowing full well quote, they were unlikely to meet them.

Michael Copley is a correspondent covering climate issues for NPR. Michael, thank you so much for joining us. Some of these quotes that are in this report are very blunt, they might be shocking to some but you've been covering these issues for a long time. Were you surprised by anything that's in this new report?

Michael Copley, NPR Correspondent:

Yeah, I think what's in the report echoes a lot of what we've been seeing from previous investigations, and that is that the plastics industry pushed recycling as a solution, even though industry officials have known for a long time that it wasn't going to be viable at scale, or that they had serious doubts about its ability to be viable at scale.

What we've seen is that they really looked at recycling as a way to kind of fend off regulation, and to keep selling more plastic. And so we've known about that. I think it's always striking when you see a report like this that honors, new statements, new quotes, and to see the way in which they really seem to view recycling as sort of, you know, a public relations tool, as opposed to an environmental tool that they sort of presented publicly.

Ali Rogin:

Many of the most eyebrow raising quotes from this report are 10, 20, even 30 years old, if they're so old, why should we be paying attention than today?

Michael Copley:

So right now what the industry is saying is the focus on these comments doesn't accurately reflect where the industry is today. And so what's asking for is sort of the public to trust it, that it's working on this new technology that is going to solve the problem of plastic waste now.

And I think that the historical record sort of undercuts public trust in the industry and raises questions about those assertions now. I think the other reason why this matters is it could potentially be legally problematic for the industry. And by that I mean, the oil and gas industry right now is facing dozens of lawsuits from states and localities, based in part on statements it made about climate change and fossil fuel going back decades.

We know that the state of California has opened an investigation into the role of oil and gas companies in the petrochemical industry, in kind of the creation of the plastic waste crisis that we're facing. And the group that put out the report and Center for Climate Integrity was upfront, saying that it was compiling this to serve as kind of the fact basis or the basis of evidence for potential legal action.

Ali Rogin:

I want to read a response we got from a plastics trade group called America's Plastic Makers. Their President accused this report and the authors of it of citing quote outdated decades old technologies, and says it's mischaracterizing the current state of the industry as you were just talking about.

This group also says that plastic makers are looking to have all plastic packaging be, quote, reused, recycled and recovered by 2040. So you just mentioned this, but where does plastics recycling technology stand right now how advanced is that technology?

Michael Copley:

So the industry has present Advanced recycling chemical recycling as a real solution. There is deep skepticism of it. And not just from sort of environmental sealed, who you'll talk to but, you know —

Ali Rogin:

Right. And I should note, Michael, that advanced recycling is actually a term of art that is used among the plastics industry to describe the current state of this recycling.

Michael Copley:

Yeah, that's right. And so as opposed to sort of traditional mechanical recycling, what they're doing now is turning plastics, sort of back into liquids and gases to sort of reuse. The skepticism comes from questions about anything about the economics of recycling changed. If in the past, it was cheaper to make new plastic, why is that not still the case, especially when you see low oil and gas prices, and the other piece of it is plastic degrades over time.

And so what scientists say is there are just limits to how many times you can reuse plastics. So there is deep skepticism.

Ali Rogin:

What does your reporting say about this claim that all plastics will be recyclable by the year 2040?

Michael Copley:

Obviously, the industry has put out this promise, I think that its critics will say we have been hearing these promises or promises like it for decades now. And that there is nothing in the record to think that now is any different.

Ali Rogin:

Is there a solution here that climate activists and environmental experts agree on that that actually includes recycling? Or is there a consensus among that side of the issue that stakeholders need to be looking at solutions, beyond recycling, that recycling is not the be all end all to avert the climate crisis that experts will point to and say we're in.

Michael Copley:

There's a recognition that plastic is so engrained in modern life, and it plays important roles in medical devices and other things, that it's almost impossible to envision a world where we move completely beyond plastic.

I think what people are talking about is reducing plastic production to a level that is more manageable with kind of recycling systems, getting rid of types of plastic that are especially hard to recycle, you can't recycle, being more transparent about what chemicals go into this stuff that again, make recycling hard, but it really does come down to when you talk to not just activists, but also businesses, increasingly, that regulation is going to play a big role.

And so that, you know, there was a hearing in the Senate and the head of SC Johnson, A big consumer goods company, said something to the effect of we need government regulation. Businesses can't do this on their own.

And I think, you know, again, that gets back in large part to the economics of this if companies don't have to deal with these costs. It's hard to imagine that they will in sort of a sustained way, create systems to deal with this if they don't have to.

Ali Rogin:

Michael Copley, correspondent covering climate issues for NPR, thank you so much for breaking this down for us.

Michael Copley:

Thanks Ali.