Plastic Wars: Industry Spent Millions Selling Recycling -- To Sell More Plastic.

[Cattledog]

Starting in the late 1980s, the plastics industry spent tens of millions of dollars promoting recycling through ads, recycling projects and public relations, telling people plastic could be and should be recycled.

But their own internal records dating back to the 1970s show that industry officials long knew that recycling plastic on a large scale was unlikely to ever be economically viable.

A report sent to top industry executives in April 1973 called recycling plastic "costly" and "difficult." It called sorting it "infeasible," saying "there is no recovery from obsolete products." Another document a year later was candid: There is "serious doubt" widespread plastic recycling "can ever be made viable on an economic basis."

The industry promoted recycling to keep plastic bans at bay

Despite this, three former top officials, who have never spoken publicly before, said the industry promoted recycling as a way to beat back a growing tide of antipathy toward plastic in the 1980s and '90s. The industry was facing initiatives to ban or curb the use of plastic. Recycling, the former officials told NPR and Frontline, became a way to preempt the bans and sell more plastic.

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/31/822597631/plastic-wars-three-takeaways-from-the-fight-over-the-future-of-plastics?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR2z2cLmfm4IdQT_3FNyYgJd9EkSUxdwFTMC1-c7lFSLRCdkLk1teq-U6ZE

[tazkcmo]

1. I work in plastic recycling

We get quarterly bonuses most quarters. We recycle post consumer and industrial plastics. The only time I saw product not selling was when oil was under $30.00/barrel. At such low prices it's cheaper to buy "virgin" plastics. Using recycled plastics requires additional processing due to contamination (wrong type, foreign pieces like wood or cardboard, etc) which adds to the cost. We are in such a market now plus lower demand due to the pandemic.

Normally, we are a healthy and profitable plastic recycling business.

[Wellstone ruled]

2. No kidding,

that was a given. Just like Alcoa with the Recycling of Coke Cans.

[SheltieLover]

3. K&R