Selling the Myth of Plastic Recycling

In the time it takes to give this presentation, roughly 30,000 tons of new plastic will be produced, the vast majority of which will never be recycled. Big Oil and the plastics industry have long understood that plastic recycling can’t meaningfully address the plastic waste crisis, yet they sold the public on the idea anyway to protect and expand plastic production. Today, the industry is redeploying the same playbook with so-called “advanced recycling,” a new generation of false solutions designed to look like progress while production continues to accelerate. This presentation cuts through the spin to expose what plastics producers knew, how they misled the public, and why holding them accountable is an essential step to solving the plastic waste crisis.