Yves here. Although the Greenpeace report discussed below no doubt has more detail, yours truly has long been frustrated by vendors of supposedly healthy products, such as \u201corganic\u201d or \u201cnatural\u201d cleaners, who use plastic packaging. My rough and ready understanding was that only clear or white containers could be recycled (and that of course assumes collection and trucking to recycling centers) when I see just about none like that. Why is it so hard to use a clear vessel with a colored label? Or as one company does, an outer cardboard sheath with a paper label and one hopes a clear inner liner?<\/p>\n
This recap of the Greenpeace report does not discuss the energy cost of recycling, which is another offset to supposed benefit .<\/p>\n
More generally, our former and much appreciated writer Jerri-Lynn Scofield covered the (not successful) war on plastics. She traveled regularly to India, and pointed out that the use of plastic packaging was vastly lower there than in the US. That demonstrated that vastly more could be done to reduce plastic waste by not using as much in the first place. But don\u2019t ask Americans to give up on their vaunted convenience.<\/p>\n
By Brett Wilkins, staff writer at Common Dreams. Originally published at Common Dreams<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n A report<\/a> published Wednesday by Greenpeace<\/a> exposes the plastics<\/a> industry as \u201cmerchants of myth\u201d still peddling the false promise of recycling as a solution to the global pollution<\/a> crisis, even as the vast bulk of commonly produced plastics remain unrecyclable.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter decades of meager investments accompanied by misleading claims and a very well-funded industry public relations campaign aimed at persuading people that recycling can make plastic use sustainable, plastic recycling remains a failed enterprise that is economically and technically unviable and environmentally unjustifiable,\u201d the report begins.<\/p>\n \u201cThe latest US government data indicates that just 5% of US plastic waste is recycled annually, down from a high of 9.5% in 2014,\u201d the publication continues. \u201cMeanwhile, the amount of single-use plastics produced every year continues to grow, driving the generation of ever greater amounts of plastic waste and pollution.\u201d<\/p>\n Among the report\u2019s findings:<\/p>\n \u201cRecycling is a toxic lie pushed by the plastics industry that is now being propped up by a pro-plastic narrative<\/a>emanating from the White House<\/a>,\u201d Greenpeace USA oceans<\/a> campaign director John Hocevar said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cThese corporations and their partners continue to sell the public a comforting lie to hide the hard truth: that we simply have<\/em> to stop producing so much plastic.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of investing in real solutions, they\u2019ve poured billions into public relations campaigns that keep us hooked on single-use plastic while our communities, oceans, and bodies pay the price,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Greenpeace is among the many climate and environmental groups supporting a global plastics treaty, an accord that remains elusive<\/a> after six rounds of talks due to opposition from the United States<\/a>, Saudi Arabia<\/a>, and other nations that produce the petroleum products from which almost all plastics are made.<\/p>\n Honed from decades of funding and promoting dubious research aimed at casting doubts about the climate crisis<\/a> caused by its products, the petrochemical industry has sent a small army of lobbyists to influence global treaty negotiations.<\/p>\n In addition to environmental and climate harms, plastics\u2014whose chemicals often leach into the food and water<\/a> people eat and drink\u2014are linked to a wide range of health risks, including infertility, developmental issues, metabolic disorders, and certain cancers.<\/p>\n Plastics also break down into tiny particles found almost everywhere on Earth\u2014including in human bodies<\/a>\u2014called microplastics, which cause ailments such as inflammation, immune dysfunction, and possibly cardiovascular disease and gut biome imbalance.<\/p>\n A study published<\/a> earlier this year in the British medical journal The Lancet<\/em> estimated that plastics are responsible for more than $1.5 trillion in health-related economic losses worldwide annually\u2014impacts that disproportionately affect low-income and at-risk populations.<\/p>\n As Jo Banner, executive director of the Descendants Project\u2014a Louisiana advocacy group dedicated to fighting environmental racism<\/a> in frontline communities\u2014said<\/a> in response to the new Greenpeace report, \u201cIt\u2019s the same story everywhere: poor, Black, Brown, and Indigenous<\/a> communities turned into sacrifice zones so oil<\/a> companies and big brands can keep making money.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey call it development\u2014but it\u2019s exploitation, plain and simple,\u201d Banner added. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing acceptable about poisoning our air, water, and food to sell more throwaway plastic. Our communities are not sacrifice zones, and we are not disposable people.\u201d<\/p>\n Writing for Time<\/em> this week, Judith Enck, a former regional administrator at the US Environmental Protection Agency<\/a>and current president of the environmental justice<\/a> group Beyond Plastics, said<\/a> that \u201cthrowing your plastic bottles in the recycling bin may make you feel good about yourself, or ease your guilt about your climate impact. But recycling plastic will not address the plastic pollution<\/a> crisis\u2014and it is time we stop pretending as such.\u201d<\/p>\n We have all been duped into play-acting our roles in the blue-bin fantasy that plastics recycling is real. It\u2019s not.https:\/\/t.co\/KacqPvAiQJ<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) December 2, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cSo what can we do?\u201d Enck continued. \u201cFirst, companies need to stop producing so much plastic and shift to reusable and refillable systems. If reducing packaging or using reusable packaging is not possible, companies should at least shift to paper, cardboard, glass, or metal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCompanies are not going to do this on their own, which is why policymakers\u2014the officials we elected to protect us\u2014need to require them to do so,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Although lawmakers in the 119th US Congress<\/a> have introduced a handful of bills aimed at tackling plastic pollution, such proposals are all but sure to fail given Republican control of both the House of Representatives and Senate and the Trump administration\u2019s pro-petroleum policies.<\/p>\n\n
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