Plus, Big Oil at a journalism workshop?

From the Editor's Desk

The oil and gas industry knew about the dangers of global warming by the 1950s. They then orchestrated an elaborate PR machine of denial and delay to avoid acting on the climate crisis.

Now, thanks to exclusive reporting by Rebecca John, we know that the fossil fuel-based chemical industry knew that plastics recycling was, well, garbage, as early as 1974.

Rebecca unearthed this earliest known admission [[link removed]] in a document by a DuPont executive, in which he declined to participate in an American bicentennial recycling program because he acknowledged that their plastics blending with other materials “preclude the possibility of our recycling them.”

But for decades, the plastics industry publicly championed — and still champions — recycling its products as the solution to its waste, rather than reducing plastic use and reusing it (the other two arrows in the ‘chasing arrows’ recycling logo, which actually do work to protect the environment).

This discovery comes as two lawsuits allege that U.S. plastic producers deceived the public about the practicality of recycling since the 1980s.

It also arrives as negotiators in Geneva, Switzerland, attempt to agree on a legally binding global treaty to address the plastics pollution crisis.

As one environmental attorney told us, it’s “maddening” to see someone “that high in the company say something that we’ve been saying for years — that plastic recycling doesn’t work.”

See the 1974 document yourself and read the full story. [[link removed]]

During these plastics treaty talks, nations remain highly divided. The lines are drawn between the majority who want to limit the production of new plastics and toxic chemicals in them and a smaller group of nations who produce those plastics and want to focus instead on improving waste management and recycling.

Sound familiar?

And if you thought carbon credits represented the Wild West of false solutions, just wait for “plastic credits.”

As the treaty’s final text draws nearer to completion, lobbyists from Verra, the world’s leading verifier of carbon credits, work to push negotiators to include plastic credits in the agreement. As journalists Conor McGlone, Benard Ogembo, and James Wakibia report from Kenya this week [[link removed]], “a plastic credit is a certificate representing a specific amount of plastic waste that has been removed from the waste stream.” The idea borrows from carbon credits and incentivizing the removal of more plastics from landfills than would otherwise happen.

But given the many wastes and abuses in carbon markets, critics worry plastic credits represent a false solution to a plastic problem filling our world — and our bodies — with pollution, while taking jobs from local waste pickers in places like Nairobi. Read more. [[link removed]]

DeSmog also can reveal that Big Oil’s influence infiltrated a journalism workshop [[link removed]] focused on training journalists to cover plastics pollution ahead of these global treaty talks.

The organizers of the workshop, The Asia-Europe Foundation, partnered with a fossil fuel lobby group, the Alliance to End Plastic Waste. Its members include major oil and petrochemical companies such as Shell, ExxonMobil, and TotalEnergies.

These companies founded the Alliance to “change the conversation away from short-term simplistic bans of plastic,” according to an Unearthed investigation. How did this group influence the journalism workshop on covering plastics pollution? Read more. [[link removed]]

Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: [[email protected]]. Want to know what our UK team is up to? Sign up for our UK newsletter [[link removed]].

Thanks,

Brendan DeMelle

Executive Director

P.S. DeSmog continues to keep you informed about threats to our climate across the globe — from up-to-the minute reporting to essential database profiles that help others fight climate denial and delay. Can you donate $10 or $20 right now to support more of this essential work? [[link removed]]

Photo: MrTinMD/Flickr [[link removed]] (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) [[link removed]]

‘Maddening’ Proof Plastics Industry Knew Recycling Was False Solution in 1974, New Document Shows [[link removed]]— By Rebecca John (9 min. read) —

Exclusive finding by DeSmog shows high-level industry awareness that recycling plastic ‘not feasible’ as companies face lawsuits over alleged public deception campaign.

READ MORE [[link removed]] Oil and Gaslighting: How Trump and Corporations Manufacture Self-Serving ‘Pseudo-Realities’ [[link removed]]— By Adam M. Lowenstein (12 min. read) —

Like MAGA, major fossil fuel polluters and their PR enablers evade accountability by spinning the world they want you to see.

READ MORE [[link removed]] Revealed: How the Meat Industry Uses Environmental Groups to Make Beef Seem Climate-Friendly [[link removed]]— Rachel Sherrington (10 min. read) —

Expert says non-profit partners provide a ‘fairy dust’ of legitimacy to beef industry.

READ MORE [[link removed]]

New Global Market for “Plastic Credits” Threatens Livelihoods at Kenyan Dump [[link removed]]

— By Conor McGlone, Benard Ogembo and James Wakibia (8 min) —

As governments meet in Geneva to hammer out a plastics treaty, petrochemicals companies seek ways to avoid curbs on production.

READ MORE [[link removed]]

How Big Oil Hijacked EU-Funded Journalism Training on Plastic Pollution [[link removed]]

— By Raluca Besliu and Aleksandra Pogorzelska (4 min. read) —

A flagship media workshop partnered with an industry group backed by Shell and ExxonMobil.

READ MORE [[link removed]] From the Climate Disinformation Database: American Chemistry Council [[link removed]]

The American Chemistry Council [[link removed]](ACC) is one of the main chemical industry trade associations in the U.S. Its members include subsidiaries of major fossil fuel companies, chemical manufacturers, and agribusinesses. ACC members include four out of the big five pesticides manufacturers (BASF, Bayer, Corteva Agriscience, and FMC). According to its website on energy policy, ACC supports an “energy strategy” that “promotes and develops all of America’s own energy resources” including “conventional and shale gas,” oil and nuclear.” It has sought to promote the chemical industry as one of the “solutions” to climate change, though its member companies are often large polluters. On August 30, 2020, according to Unearthed, the ACC lobbied the Trump administration to prevent changes to the Basel Convention, an international agreement preventing plastic waste from entering low and middle income nations. The ACC wrote a letter calling for the U.S. government to “prohibit imposition of domestic limits on production or consumption of chemicals and plastic and restrictions on cross-boundary trade of materials and feedstocks.”

Read the full profile [[link removed]] and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database [[link removed]], Ad & PR Database [[link removed]], and Koch Network Database [[link removed]].

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DeSmog

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Seattle, Washington, 98107

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