A brief history of the recycling lies told by the plastics industry

Watch as the plastics industry is called out for decades of fake recycling claims. Turns out trash isn't the only thing they're full of.

Recycling has been a story fed to consumers to make us believe the massive amounts of trash we generate aren't so bad and are being responsibly managed. For years those plastics and recyclables you were separating out were sent to China to be burnt. Here we are told how the plastic industry is re-running the same old playbook in the face of renewed efforts to eliminate things like plastic bags and packaging materials.

Back in the late 80s and early 90s I remember being so enthusiastic about recycling. I even helped get recycling bins installed on my college campus, as part of a student services program. I guess I'm just easy to market to.

Previously:
Plastic bag recycling project gives up the ghost
Apple's claims about recycling and sustainability are kinda entirely nonsense
Responsible Electronics Recycling Act, to ban overseas dumping of US ewaste, introduced in Congress
Big Oil has been lying about plastic recycling since at least 1974