Lawsuit over corporate lies about recycling plastics

As discussed here before, it is no secret that the oil and chemical industries tricked the American people into accepting single use plastics as harmless conveniences. The corporate public relations propaganda in the 1970s was that plastics are mostly recyclable. If fact most plastics were not and still are not recyclable. 

To date, about 9% of all plastics ever made have been recycled. About 91% is in landfills, laying on the ground, in fresh waters and in the oceans. In other words, this is a public relations lie:

Symbols of deceit - ~90% of it isn't recyclable, 

making the recycling assertion 100% a lie

In an odd lawsuit, California is suing over the recycling lie. NPR writes:

Accusing the country's largest oil and gas companies of "a half-century campaign of deception," California's attorney general opened an investigation Thursday into the possible role the companies played promoting the idea that plastics could be recycled, in an effort to manipulate the public to buy more of it.

Attorney General Rob Bonta said the fossil fuel industry benefited financially from the industry's misleading statements which he said go back decades. Bonta has so far subpoenaed ExxonMobil seeking information and documents.

"For more than half a century, the plastics industry has engaged in an aggressive campaign to deceive the public, perpetuating a myth that recycling can solve the plastics crisis," Bonta said. "The truth is: The vast majority of plastic cannot be recycled."

The announcement cited NPR and the PBS series Frontline's 2020 investigation into the oil and gas industry which uncovered documents showing top officials knew that recycling plastic was unlikely to work but spent tens of millions of dollars telling the public the opposite. Starting in the 1980s, the industry launched dozens of ads, nonprofits, and campaigns touting the benefits of recycling plastic – and placing the responsibility on consumers – even as their own documents warned that recycling was "infeasible" and that there was "serious doubt" that plastic recycling "can ever be made viable on an economic basis," the investigation found.  

In a statement, ExxonMobil said it rejects the allegations made by the California attorney general, and highlighted that it is the first company to use what it referred to as an "advanced recycling technology" to recycle used plastic.

"We are focused on solutions and meritless allegations like these distract from the important collaborative work that is underway to enhance waste management and improve circularity," the statement said.

The industry group, the American Chemistry Council, said in a statement it is committed to keeping plastic out of the environment and has "proposed comprehensive and bold actions at the state, federal, and international levels."

One can imagine that once this lawsuit reaches our beloved neo-fascist, Christian nationalist, laissez-faire capitalist, Republican Supreme Court, the lawsuit will very likely be dismissed for obvious reasons. A snowball's chance in hell comes to mind. The rationale is simple: Lying to and deceiving the public is legal. Corporations have almost unlimited power not only to lie and deceive, but also to privatize and trickle profits up, while socializing damage, risk and costs including environmental damage. That's just laissez-faire capitalism doing its usual thing.

The theory explained: Sparrows pick through the horse packaging  

to find a few oats that might pass through and fall onto the ground

  

As a matter of fact, the corporations and their propagandists are lying when they say they are focused on solutions. What a load of crap. The allegations are not meritless. 

It is also a lie for the corporations to say that this lawsuit distracts from collaborative work that is underway to enhance waste management and improve circularity. That is meaningless blither. The lawsuit in no way, shape or form distracts from any corporate effort to recycle or "improve circularity." 

That reasoning is so ridiculous that it openly insults the public. ExxonMobil might as well also claim that the lawsuit has caused toilets at corporate worksites to get blocked up and that is causing emotional distress among workers. Hell, ExxonMobil might as well also claim that the lawsuit caused Russia to invade Ukraine and the Democrats to steal the 2020 election.

This is just routine corporate public relations in action. Stupid as it is, it will work with millions of people. It will definitely work with all or nearly all Republicans in congress. That sad fact reminds me of these fun observations by two social scientists in 2016:

“. . . . the typical citizen drops down to a lower level of mental performance as soon as he enters the political field. He argues and analyzes in a way which he would readily recognize as infantile within the sphere of his real interests. . . . cherished ideas and judgments we bring to politics are stereotypes and simplifications with little room for adjustment as the facts change. . . . . the real environment is altogether too big, too complex, and too fleeting for direct acquaintance. We are not equipped to deal with so much subtlety, so much variety, so many permutations and combinations. Although we have to act in that environment, we have to reconstruct it on a simpler model before we can manage it.”