While I realize that I have been on an environmental kick over the last few articles, I would like to cover one more topic before I move onto other social issues of interest. My last article dealt with our trash and covered the spectrum of trash material that Solid Municipal Waste facilities have to deal with. In this article, I am going to focus on the very specific trash item of plastics. Are they really recyclable? Or have we been “greenwashed” into believing that our recycling practices can control the plethora of plastic that has been produced and dumped. Have “we, the consumers” been lied to by corporate America for the almighty dollar?
Greenwashing… The Lie.
For starters, lets begin with the term “greenwashing”. “Greenwashing is essentially when a company or organization spends more time and money on marketing themselves as being sustainable than on actually minimizing their environmental impact. It’s a deceitful advertising method to gain favor with consumers who choose to support businesses that care about bettering the planet.”
So who would I say are the ultimate Greenwashers..?
Who Started the Recycling Lie?
I’m old enough to remember the now famous 1971 “Crying Indian” commercial, which was designed to draw attention to the growing issue of our waste management. It was put out by the Keep America Beautiful campaign, which was “formed in 1953 when a group of corporate and civic leaders met in New York City to bring the public and private sectors together to develop and promote a national cleanliness ethic.” They have a statement on their lead page:
At Keep America Beautiful, we believe in the shared responsibility to build and maintain clean, green, and beautiful spaces.
That’s why we take action every day to improve and beautify communities across America.
I underlined the key words from the KAB Goal that stands out. “Shared responsibility” to maintain clean, green and beautiful spaces. The irony behind this is who actually founded KAB: the packaging companies, to divert blame from the industry and make the consumers feel responsible for the waste crisis.
WHY would the plastic producers do such a thing?
Greenwashing for Profits…
“When states began responding to the litter problem, the packaging and beverage industry worried the message would undermine their business models. Their profits demanded disposable cans and food packaging. So they founded Keep America Beautiful, which put the litter problem back on the people and out of the hands of corporations. The packaging industry relied on convincing people they needed to buy more stuff and that these items would undergo a cycle of becoming trash almost immediately. Society had to be trained to dispose of single-use plastic. The bottle and can industry used the power of advertising to convince consumers that the things they were reusing, like glass bottles, were garbage.”
Basically, by the 1960’s protesters were putting the blame of the growing waste problem onto the packaging industries. They blamed the industries for causing the proliferation of disposable items and depleting natural resources. “Keep America Beautiful practiced a sly form of propaganda. Since the corporations behind the campaign never publicized their involvement, audiences assumed that the group was a disinterested party.”
A Brief History of Plastics
Unfortunately for our growing global material needs, plastics have become a necessary evil. Let’s dig a little into the history of plastic so we can better understand WHY the invention of plastic was actually necessary, at the time. According to the Science History Institute:
The first synthetic polymer was invented in 1869 by John Wesley Hyatt, who was inspired by a New York firm’s offer of $10,000 for anyone who could provide a substitute for ivory. The growing popularity of billiards had put a strain on the supply of natural ivory, obtained through the slaughter of wild elephants. By treating cellulose, derived from cotton fiber, with camphor, Hyatt discovered a plastic that could be crafted into a variety of shapes and made to imitate natural substances like tortoiseshell, horn, linen, and ivory.
This discovery was revolutionary. For the first time human manufacturing was not constrained by the limits of nature. Nature only supplied so much wood, metal, stone, bone, tusk, and horn. But now humans could create new materials. This development helped not only people but also the environment. Advertisements praised celluloid as the savior of the elephant and the tortoise. Plastics could protect the natural world from the destructive forces of human need.
The creation of new materials also helped free people from the social and economic constraints imposed by the scarcity of natural resources. Inexpensive celluloid made material wealth more widespread and obtainable.
Could it be said that plastic “saved” the elephants..? Overly simplified, but somewhat truthful for the time. The limitations of natural resources were being felt, and the innovation of plastic would allow a new freedom in what was used to manufacture materials. So, yes, initially a win for all involved, both Nature and Man.
Expansion of Plastic Usage
The initial invention of natural plastic in 1869 lead to other innovations:
-The invention of Bakelight in 1907, which was made from completely synthetic materials to help with the insulation of the newly growing electrical power lines,
-To the invention of nylon in 1935 to help with the needs of WWII, which replaced silk for parachutes, and was used for body armor, etc.
“During World War II plastic production in the United States increased by 300%.”
The issue then became what to do with all that plastic production once the initial wartime use had faltered… So we have the advent of Tupperware in 1948, and “the example of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) invented in 1941, to show how versatile these cheap new materials could be. Today it is used to make fizzy drinks bottles, because it is strong enough to hold two atmospheres of pressure… [It is also used to make] a soft winter glove, as well as a sheet of plastic for wrapping flowers. “It’s the same material,” [says Andrea Sella]. The only difference is the way in which it has been cast. And that is just one plastic.”
Plastics Become a Problem… Quickly.
Now let’s fast forward to when plastic was first discovered in the ocean, which was the 1960’s. In my first article, Brother Bob’s 50 Year Apocalyptic Plan, I wrote about the year 1969 and how some of the environmental issues brought about our first Earth Day in 1970. But, it could be argued that the environmental movement began with the development of the plastics industry around the time of WWII, or even before. The Sierra Club was founded in 1892 by John Muir for the preservation of natural wonders. In the early 1900’s there was a very noticeable lack of wildlife, leading to the passage environmental laws and the formation of the first National Wildlife Refuge. In 1962, Rachel Carson published her book Silent Spring, which talked about the dangers of the pesticide DDT. We’ve been environmentally minded in the US for decades.
What’s note worthy is the time frame for plastics to change from saving manufacturing supplies and natural resources to becoming an environmental nightmare… World War II was from 1939 to 1945. It took all of “20 years” for the plastics industries to become the throw-away-profiteers of tomorrow.
This now circles back to the Keep America Beautiful ad of the Crying Indian, a very slick version of greenwashing…
WHY did Plastics have to Greenwash the American Consumer?
So what is so different about the “lie” that started with an Indian crying?
“People start pollution. People can stop it.”
Because of the subtle truth of it, that this IS a double edged sword, as the industries worried about all those years ago. We, the Consumers, can insist that the industry be changed and held accountable for all the waste that they have profited from by the greenwashing ads they spent millions on.
What are some examples of the advertising used by the plastics companies?
A Brief History of Greenwashing Ads…
1955 Life Magazine posted a two page article called “Throwaway Living” that talked about the idea that single-use items are a necessity of the modern lifestyle.
1971 Crying Indian Ad dealing with pollution.
1978 Pepsi 2L Bottle Ad, promoting the indestructible nature of plastic.
1994 Plastic Makes It Possible TV ad promoting the usefulness of all plastics.
2013 Keep America Beautiful TV Ad for the re-purporsing of bottles.
2020 I want to be recycled Ad Campaign by Keep America Beautiful.
Keep America Beautiful Campaigns & PSA site.
Trained to Recycle What?
“We, the People” have been trained to stop “it”, pollution, from happening through such public ads and other PSAs. We have been trained to recycle our trash, of course. But as the ad examples above show, this recycling push was also developed and promoted by the plastics industries. Another form of greenwashing.
In March of 2020, Frontline put out a documentary called Plastic Wars, which dealt with the use of plastics and their management once used and thrown away. What’s interesting in this documentary is that they interview former plastic employees and discuss the history of the plastic industries dealings with the rise and fall of the public’s demonization of plastics. The transcript can be read here.
I talked about recycling in my article We, The Consumer… Trash and Our Green Future. In Plastic Wars, they discussed all the various types of plastics and how most of them were NOT recyclable and how most plastics at recycling plants end up as mountains of NON-recyclable “mixed plastics”. None of this would be overly surprising to the “news-savvy”. When China quit taking our recycling in 2018, the national issue of waste management became public news.
Trained to Recycle What the Plastics Told Us to.
What was surprising to learn was “that many of the problems we face today were set in motion decades ago, by the very companies who make plastic in the first place.
One of those companies is DuPont, and on the grounds of the first du Pont family home, [is] the Hagley Library. It holds one of the world’s largest collections of industrial history.”
When the initial bans of specific plastics first entered legislation in the 1980’s, the Council for Solid Waste Solutions was created by the big oil and petrochemical companies that made plastic, like Amoco, Chevron, Dow and Exxon. A four minute video, “The Story of Plastic”, talks about plastics and how they are made. Worth the watch.
Ronald Liesemer, who ran the Council from 1988-2001, stated in Plastic Wars “There was an attitude that if your product was not recycled, then it should not be in the marketplace. So, it was up to us in the plastics industry to solve this problem so that they could continue to package their products in plastic.” Millions were given to him to solve the dilemma. His answer was to set up a local pilot recycling program, and the legislation averted.
Creative Use of Recycling Definitions…
The plastics industry even took the recycling logo and added codes to tell the different plastics apart. The plastics were not all readily recyclable, but it looked good to the consumers who believed they could recycle so the plastics continued to sell. This is how how you get mountains of mixed plastics. Recycling centers were swamped with all this plastic. “It says it’s recyclable right on it.” And [Coy Smith, former board member of the National Recycling Coalition, replied] “I can tell you, I can’t give this away. There’s no one that would even take it if I paid them to take it.” That’s how unrecyclable it was.”
Global and Historical Impact of Plastics
Plastics have become so much a part of our environment that we have now huge gyres of floating plastic in the ocean. Animals get trapped, hurt or die due to the amount of plastic in our environments. There has been so much plastic released into our environment that it is now beginning to show up in the sediment layers of our coastlines, dating back to 1834; so there will be an Iron Age, Bronze Age and Plastic Age. And what do the petrochemical companies plan on doing with their plastic output? Plastic Wars stated that global plastic production would triple by 2050, and The Story of Plastic stated that over 300 new or expanded petrochemical plants will be built by 2025 in the US alone.
It would seem that the world is getting greenwashed, all while the petrochemical companies are getting $$ green $$ papered $$.
List the Lies
The time has come for a little clarity, and hopefully some action… Let’s count the Lies put out by the Oil/Petrochemical Plastics Industries:
- That everything we use is disposable. While this may be a TRUE statement, it is NOT a rational answer. From the plastics perspective of profits, the more we dispose of, the more we buy, and the more money they make.
- That we are responsible for the build up of all these disposable items. If We, the Consumers, accept this responsibility solely, they don’t have to and can continue to make money at low cost to themselves and at high cost to the global environment.
- That RECYCLING is the answer to the disposable waste. If we accept that recycling is the only answer, then plastics keeps a good image, and they continue to make money.
- That ALL plastics can be recycled, as seen by the symbol. If we accept the technicality that all plastics can be recycled, regardless of difficulty or expense, then the companies can continue to make irresponsible plastic materials and make more money.
“Irresponsible plastic materials”… I think that this is what this all boils down to. The plastics industries have greenwashed the world, literally, and with powerful lobbyists and money, greenwashed local and national governments into allowing them to be completely blame free for the environmental global catastrophe that they have created, willfully and at profit.
We the Consumer vs Plastic Goliath
So what can we do against such powerful industries, truly a Goliath to the common man’s David? We can protest, in a variety of ways. I wrote about this in my last article, We the Consumer, and so I will reiterate those points and add a few new ones on.
We, the Consumer, have buying power. If you reread the Crying Indian and Plastic Wars sections from above, the PSA and Ad greenwashing came into play in the plastics industry BECAUSE We-the-Consumers were threatening their corporate livelihoods. Collective boycotting of purchasing certain products or from certain manufacturers has an impact in a Capitalistic society. Just look at what Cancel Culture has been doing recently.
We, the Consumer, can sort our trash. Basically practice good waste management.
We, the Consumer, can keep things longer. Basically try to use something until it falls apart, breaks, or you outgrow it – technologically or physically.
A Little Extra Effort on Our Part.
But now we need to step into a deeper realm of what We-the-Consumers can do.
We can make a greater effort to become involved at a local, state or national level.
We, the consumer, can be EDUCATED and AWARE. We can read, listen, watch and debate with others to learn all we can about the problems and the answers so that we can make rational, well-founded responses to the environmental/climate problems as we understand them. Even if you take small interest in the details, to gain a basic understanding is a step in the right direction. Watch a PBS documentary, or a National Geographic. There are lots of options out there, no matter what level of interest you care to take.
We, the Consumer, can then become more ACTIVE at a local, state or national level. Join a local group that is environmentally minded; trash pickup, parks development, community improvements… Join a State or National group; Sierra Club, Green Peace, The Nature Conservancy. There is a variety of choices, so find one you can feel invested in.
We, the Consumer, can then take all this information and activism and VOTE. We are a democracy. We can and should express our interests and concerns. We need to flex our political muscle to ensure that our long term interests of improving the climate and environmental issues will be dealt with for our future, as well as our children’s. Passing legislation to ensure that the Plastics Industries be held accountable for the state of the world, literally and financially, is a reasonable request. These petrochemical-plastics industries have literally made billions at the expense of the global environment and human health. The European Union has passed legislation to control and hold accountable these corporations, as well as some states here in the US. These EPR (extended producer responsibility) “program[s] will reduce the impacts of waste on the environment and human health, keep plastics out of rivers and oceans, and take steps toward addressing the inequitable impacts of our waste system on vulnerable communities.”
Plastics should only be produced if they can TRULY (meaning easily and cheaply) be recycled or composted.
Halting Irresponsible Profiteering.
With effort, We the Consumers can hold these petrochemical-plastic giants accountable for the ill-gotten gains made from their “throw away profiteering of [our] tomorrow” today. We can take back our future by requiring that all these “irresponsible plastic productions” be halted and that there be global management of the plastic wastes.
Let’s Say it Like it Really is…
CORPORATIONS start pollution. People can stop it.
