Plastics producers are following Big Tobacco’s playbook, and we’re all paying the price 
Andrew Craigie Andrew Craigie

Plastics producers are following Big Tobacco’s playbook, and we’re all paying the price 

Let’s not fall for another false solution offered by companies to maintain their profit margins. Let’s not allow chemical recycling to win with the same deceptive playbook used by Big Tobacco. We need real change now — and it can’t begin until companies are required by new laws to break their plastic habit and give consumers safe packaged products that don’t threaten the health of people or the planet.

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The Plastics Industry Would Like a Word With Your Kids
Andrew Craigie Andrew Craigie

The Plastics Industry Would Like a Word With Your Kids

School campuses are a new battleground in an increasingly bitter brawl over plastics, as groups like Vitale’s seek to improve the reputation of a material that has become infamous as an environmental menace. The efforts are partially funded by companies involved in or dependent on fossil fuel production, through donations and conference sponsorships.

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Chemical Recycling “A Dangerous Deception” for Solving Plastic Pollution: Report
Andrew Craigie Andrew Craigie

Chemical Recycling “A Dangerous Deception” for Solving Plastic Pollution: Report

Chemical recycling — an umbrella term used to describe processes that break plastic waste down into molecular building blocks with high heat or chemicals and convert them into new products — will not help reduce plastic pollution, but rather exacerbate environmental problems, according to a new report by nonprofit environmental advocacy groups Beyond Plastics and the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN).

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New Report Calls Out Chemical Recycling as a ‘False Solution’ to the Plastics Crisis
Andrew Craigie Andrew Craigie

New Report Calls Out Chemical Recycling as a ‘False Solution’ to the Plastics Crisis

The plastics and petrochemical industries’ latest purported solution to the plastic pollution crisis – chemical or “advanced” recycling – is essentially a public relations and marketing strategy designed to distract from the urgent need to curb plastic production, a new report contends. The report, released today by Beyond Plastics and the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), exposes the failures and perils of chemical recycling as an approach to manage plastic waste.

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Unproven “Advanced Recycling” Facilities Have Received Millions in Public Subsidies
Andrew Craigie Andrew Craigie

Unproven “Advanced Recycling” Facilities Have Received Millions in Public Subsidies

A new, 159-page report, released today by Beyond Plastics and the International Pollutants Elimination Network, or IPEN, casts serious doubt on the technology’s ability to make even a modest dent on the world’s growing plastic burden. In the most comprehensive report on chemical recycling facilities in the U.S. to date, researchers looked at the operations of 11 companies across the country to examine the plastic industry’s claim that chemical recycling can significantly help reduce global plastic pollution.

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Andrew Craigie Andrew Craigie

Trashed: The Secret Life of Plastic Recycling

ABC News' groundbreaking investigation looks into how well the U.S. plastic bag recycling system is working, and how communities are impacted by nearby landfills and incinerators.

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Andrew Craigie Andrew Craigie

Why Big Oil and the Chemical Lobby Are Blasting Us With “Advanced” Recycling Ads

The disturbing reports on plastic pollution just keep coming: toxic plastic waste is filling up our oceans, our landfills, and even our bodies. But if you’ve seen a recent surge of ads from the companies that produce this garbage, you might be forgiven for thinking they’re working on solutions to the problem. “America’s Plastic Makers” is the brand promoting a slew of ads about a new “solution” to plastic pollution that experts and evidence say creates new climate and environmental harms, and doesn’t actually work. It’s called “advanced” or chemical recycling, and refers to various processes for repurposing plastic waste.

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Andrew Craigie Andrew Craigie

Bio-Based Plastic Won’t Solve the Plastic Problem

If you order takeout in Los Angeles and your meal comes with a compostable fork made from PLA—a common bio-based plastic—you’re not supposed to toss the utensil in your curbside compost bin. The city doesn’t want any products or packaging labeled “biodegradable” or “compostable,” saying that the materials don’t actually break down quickly enough even at commercial composting facilities. The fork also can’t go in a recycling bin, since it can contaminate other materials. And if it ends up in a landfill or the ocean, it may last as long as if it had been made from regular plastic.

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Andrew Craigie Andrew Craigie

Report Pinpoints Composting, Recycling to Cut Emissions

A report from the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives targeted organics diversion, increased recycling and reduced plastic use as key elements in keeping planetary warming below a critical threshold. The report explored several zero-waste solutions to model how to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, with a focus on the waste sector.

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Eve Fox Eve Fox

What You Need to Know About Bioplastics

Bioplastics are a small but growing market of plastics that are becoming increasingly popular, thanks to concerns about the environmental and health impacts of traditional plastic. But behind that green sheen, biodegradable and compostable plastics have serious problems.

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news articles Andrew Craigie news articles Andrew Craigie

Us Is Recycling Just 5% Of Its Plastic Waste, Studies Show

When most people toss a plastic bottle or cup into the recycling bin, they assume that means the plastic is recycled – but a new report lays bare how rarely that actually happens. According to the Last Beach Cleanup and Beyond Plastics, the organization behind the report released on Wednesday, the recycling rate for post-consumer plastic was just 5% to 6% in 2021.

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