Part Four / What We’ve Done About It

4.22 The Myth of Recycling

All online sources accessed on

  1. The big food and drink companies are rightly held responsible Dunaway, F., ‘The “Crying Indian” ad that fooled the environmental movement’, Chicago Tribune, 21 November 2017, https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-indian-crying-environment-ads-pollution-1123-20171113-story.html.

    passed all the costs of dealing with single-use plastic bottles on Mulholland, L., and Stern, M., ‘Coca Cola’s 100 billion bottle problem’, Panorama, BBC1, 30 October 2021, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0010zxs.

    the ‘Crying Indian’ TV advert ‘Keep America beautiful: the crying Indian (1970)’, YouTube, uploaded 4 July 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0sxwGlTLWw.

    actively opposing legislation … to switch back to reusable bottles Dunaway, ‘The “Crying Indian” ad’.

    the Coca-Cola Company produces 100 billion single-use plastic bottles Mulholland and Stern, ‘Coca Cola’s 100 billion bottle problem’.

  2. ‘It is not the packaging manufacturer’ Boscia, S., ‘Tory MP moonlighting as packaging lobby chair tried to soften environmental laws on plastic’, City A.M.., 10 November 2021, https://www.cityam.com/tory-mp-moonlighting-as-packaging-lobby-chair-tried-to-soften-environmental-laws-on-plastic/.

    the world would see only a 7 per cent reduction Pew Charitable Trusts and SystemIQ, Breaking the Plastic Wave: A Comprehensive Assessment of Pathways towards Stopping Ocean Plastic Pollution, 2020, https://www.systemiq.earth/breakingtheplasticwave/.

    The 9 per cent of plastic … to have made it a recycling plant Geyer, R., et al., ‘Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made’, Science Advances, 3 (7), 2017: Article e1700782, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1700782.

  3. The 2021 audit saw Coca-Cola … come out on top Break Free from Plastic, Branded: Brand Audit Report 2021, 2021, https://www.breakfreefromplastic.org/brandaudit2021/.

    Even when plastic waste is not dumped He, P., et al., ‘Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill: a source of microplastics? Evidence of microplastics in landfill leachate’, Water Research, 159, 2019: 38–45, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2019.04.060.

    burning plastic in ‘energy from waste’ incinerators Ballinger, A., et al., Greenhouse Gas and Air Quality Impacts of Incineration and Landfill, Eunomia, 9 March 2021, https://www.eunomia.co.uk/reports-tools/greenhouse-gas-and-air-quality-impacts-of-incineration-and-landfill/.

    the myth of recycling is kept alive Environmental Investigation Agency, The Truth behind Trash: The Scale and Impact of the International Trade in Plastic Waste, September 2021, https://eia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/EIA-The-Truth-Behind-Trash-FINAL.pdf.

    In 2018, Greenpeace investigators went to Malaysia Greenpeace Malaysia, The Recycling Myth: Malaysia and the Broken Global Recycling System, 27 November 2018, https://www.greenpeace.org/southeastasia/publication/549/the-recycling-myth/.

    This doesn’t stop the industry Disley, E., et al., eds., Mapping the Risk of Serious and Organized Crime Infiltrating Legitimate Businesses: Final Report, European Commission, Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, 2021, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2837/64101.

  4. The UK is the second-highest producer of plastic waste per person Carrington, D., ‘US and UK citizens are world’s biggest sources of plastic waste: study’, Guardian, 30 October 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/30/us-and-uk-citizens-are-worlds-biggest-sources-of-plastic-waste-study.

    In 2020, the minister in charge of waste claimed ‘Plastics: pollution control. Question for Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’, Written Questions, Answers and Statements UIN 113020, tabled on 9 November 2020, UK Parliament, https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2020-11-09/113020.

    In the same year, Greenpeace found Greenpeace, Trashed: How the UK Is Still Dumping Waste on the Rest of the World, 17 May 2021, https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Trashed-Greenpeace-plastics-report-final.pdf.

    At ten sites around the outskirts of Adana Ibid.

    Ninety-nine per cent of plastic is made from petrochemical feedstocks Greenpeace, The Climate Emergency Unpacked: How Consumer Goods Companies Are Fueling Big Oil’s Plastic Expansion, September 2021, https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/1001_GP_Unpacked_Report_ENG_FINAL.pdf.

    Plastic produces greenhouse gases at every stage Vallette, J., et al., The New Coal: Plastics and Climate Change, Beyond Plastics, October 2021, https://www.beyondplastics.org/s/REPORT_The_New-Coal_Plastics_and_Climate-Change_10-21-2021.pdf.

    investing billions in petrochemical factories Ambrose, J., ‘“War on plastic” could strand oil industry’s £300bn investment’, Guardian, 4 September 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/04/war-on-plastic-could-strand-oil-industrys-300bn-investment.

    The International Energy Agency has predicted Fernandez Pales, A., et al., The Future of Petrochemicals: Towards More Sustainable Plastics and Fertilisers, International Energy Agency, October 2018, https://www.iea.org/reports/the-future-of-petrochemicals.

    plastics are rarely mentioned when climate change policies are debated Vallette et al., The New Coal.

    by 2040 plastic production is expected to double Pew Charitable Trusts and SystemIQ, Breaking the Plastic Wave.