Take a look at this article and see what you think...
"For decades, plastic producers knowingly misled the public about the feasibility of plastic recycling, according to a recent study by the Center for Climate Integrity. The non-profit’s report details how the plastic industry marketed recycling as a solution to plastic waste for decades, all while dismissing it internally as both technically and economically unviable.
This may be a tough pill to swallow for those who grew up hearing about the virtues of plastic in ad campaigns (see: “plastics make it possible”). However, statistically, most plastic is either landfilled or burned—just about 9 percent is ever recycled, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, an intergovernmental group.
Crucially, the Center for Climate Integrity’s report is about plastic recycling—not all recycling. Other materials, such as paper and glass, statistically fare better when you toss them in the recycling bin. More than 68 percent of paper and paperboard was recycled in the U.S., according to 2018 EPA data, while glass has a recycling rate of about 31.3 percent.
The American Plastics Council’s 1997 ad, “Plastics Makes It Possible,” features children extolling the virtues of plastics.
he Center for Climate Integrity’s study pins the blame not on consumers, who typically shoulder such criticism, but instead on oil and gas companies and the plastic industry itself. The industry’s actions “effectively protected and expanded plastic markets,” the report states, “while stalling legislative or regulatory action that would meaningfully address plastic waste and pollution.”
In the 1950s, the plastics industry began churning out single-use plastics in a bid to boost profits. This “shift to disposables,” as the report puts it, created a waste problem, and the plastic industry promoted landfilling and incineration in response. By the 1980s and 1990s, however, the industry faced growing backlash from consumers over plastic waste and legislation to limit the sale of single-use plastics. According to the Center for Climate Integrity’s report, the industry invested in extensive campaigns to sidestep such bans, convincing the public that recycling was the solution. As a result, worldwide plastic production rose from 2 million tonnes to 120 million tonnes annually from 1950 and 1990, per a Our World in Data report. And it’s soared ever since, hitting 459 million tonnes per year in 2019. The resulting plastic pollution is now everywhere — from the Mariana Trench and Mount Everest to the air we breathe and the food we eat.
“[Plastic] recycling cannot be considered a permanent solid waste solution, as it merely pro-longs the time until an item is disposed of.”....
I wonder what else they have lied to us about..
"For decades, plastic producers knowingly misled the public about the feasibility of plastic recycling, according to a recent study by the Center for Climate Integrity. The non-profit’s report details how the plastic industry marketed recycling as a solution to plastic waste for decades, all while dismissing it internally as both technically and economically unviable.
This may be a tough pill to swallow for those who grew up hearing about the virtues of plastic in ad campaigns (see: “plastics make it possible”). However, statistically, most plastic is either landfilled or burned—just about 9 percent is ever recycled, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, an intergovernmental group.
Crucially, the Center for Climate Integrity’s report is about plastic recycling—not all recycling. Other materials, such as paper and glass, statistically fare better when you toss them in the recycling bin. More than 68 percent of paper and paperboard was recycled in the U.S., according to 2018 EPA data, while glass has a recycling rate of about 31.3 percent.
he Center for Climate Integrity’s study pins the blame not on consumers, who typically shoulder such criticism, but instead on oil and gas companies and the plastic industry itself. The industry’s actions “effectively protected and expanded plastic markets,” the report states, “while stalling legislative or regulatory action that would meaningfully address plastic waste and pollution.”
In the 1950s, the plastics industry began churning out single-use plastics in a bid to boost profits. This “shift to disposables,” as the report puts it, created a waste problem, and the plastic industry promoted landfilling and incineration in response. By the 1980s and 1990s, however, the industry faced growing backlash from consumers over plastic waste and legislation to limit the sale of single-use plastics. According to the Center for Climate Integrity’s report, the industry invested in extensive campaigns to sidestep such bans, convincing the public that recycling was the solution. As a result, worldwide plastic production rose from 2 million tonnes to 120 million tonnes annually from 1950 and 1990, per a Our World in Data report. And it’s soared ever since, hitting 459 million tonnes per year in 2019. The resulting plastic pollution is now everywhere — from the Mariana Trench and Mount Everest to the air we breathe and the food we eat.
“[Plastic] recycling cannot be considered a permanent solid waste solution, as it merely pro-longs the time until an item is disposed of.”....
I wonder what else they have lied to us about..
