Plastics Industry Under Fire After CCI Exposed Decade-Long “Campaign of Deception” on Recycling Fraud

By Moon Harper

Feb 16, 2024 12:18 AM EST

The petrochemical industry, which includes large oil companies like ExxonMobil, was found to be pushing recycling despite knowing it was not a sustainable solution for plastic waste, and caused a public waste crisis, according to a Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) report that was released on Thursday.

The report, titled "The Fraud of Plastic Recycling," revealed how Big Oil and the plastics industry have misleadingly touted recycling as a solution to plastic waste for over 50 years despite knowing it's not practical or cost-effective on a large scale.

Significant Threat of Plastic Pollution

CCI President Richard Wiles stated that fossil fuel companies, which misled the public about their products causing climate change, also lied about plastic recycling, emphasizing that these "lies are at the heart of the two most catastrophic pollution crises in human history."

Plastic pollution could outweigh fish in the ocean by 2050 if things don't change, and it could cause toxic emissions from making and burning plastic. In general, people unintentionally consume about the size of a credit card in plastic every week, with severe but unknown health effects.

Technical and Economic Challenges Hindering Plastic Recycling

Recycling, often seen as a solution for plastic waste, has proven ineffective and insufficient, where 90% of plastics discarded from 1950 to 2015 were either burned, buried in landfills, or ended up in the environment.

Plastics degrade in quality, increasing the risk of toxins leaching into the environment when used more than twice. It's also cheaper to produce new plastics than recycle old ones, where only PET and HDPE types attract markets that will recycle them.

The Plastics Industry's Deceptive Campaign

The plastics industry employed different tactics to convince the public about recycling, which includes providing financial support to front groups advocating for recycling, running advertising and public relations campaigns, investing in recycling research to show commitment to the cause, establishing ambitious internal recycling targets, developing educational materials to teach recycling to students, promoting "advanced recycling," which breaks plastics down into chemical components for potential reuse, despite practical limitations, and asserting, despite evidence to the contrary, that recycling is integral to a "circular economy."

Calling for Legal Consequences for the "Campaign of Deception"

CCI argued that the petrochemical industry should face legal consequences for its "campaign of deception," similar to lawsuits against tobacco and opioid companies. Wiles emphasized the necessity of holding corporations and trade groups accountable when they knowingly conceal the serious risks posed by their products from the public and policymakers, highlighting that accountability entails "stopping the lying, telling the truth, and paying for the damage they've caused."

CCI's vice president of legal and general counsel, Alyssa Johl, asserted that the long-standing efforts of Big Oil and the plastics industry to mislead the public regarding plastic recycling have likely violated laws aimed at safeguarding consumers and the environment from corporate malpractice and pollution. Johl urged attorneys general and other officials to thoroughly evaluate the evidence of deception by these companies and take necessary measures to ensure accountability.