Maryland should hold ExxonMobil responsible for plastic recycling lies | Guest Commentary
Americans are being peddled misinformation about what happens to the plastic they buy and use in their daily lives, and Maryland taxpayers have an opportunity to fight back. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has sued ExxonMobil for the fossil fuel company’s pollution and track record of misinformation — particularly around the recyclability of Americans’ plastics.
Opinion: California Exxon lawsuit is exposing the truth about plastics and what we can recycle
While other governments have brought legal action against consumer brands for their plastic pollution, California’s case is the first to target a major plastic producer for falsely promoting recycling as a solution.
Challenging Big Oil’s Big Lie About Plastic Recycling
This is a historic moment in the fight against plastic pollution, a crisis that has been created by companies that have known recycling was not possible for most plastics. While others have filed important suits against consumer brand companies for their pollution, like New York attorney general Letitia James’ lawsuit against PepsiCo, Bonta’s suit is the first to target a company for lying about plastic recycling’s efficacy.
Turkey’s Plastic Recycling Industry Is Booming. But It Comes at a Cost.
Dotted across the southern Turkish city of Adana are illegal dump sites for plastic recycling waste that never got recycled. The labels show they've come from consumers in Europe and the United States. These countries now ship recyclable plastic waste to countries like Turkey. But this rapidly growing industry often skirts regulations, leading to health and environmental risks for the surrounding community. The World's Durrie Bouscaren reports from Adana.
Can Plastic Recycling Ever Really Work?
Many plastics that carry the “chasing arrows” symbol, like soda cups and yogurt tubs, are rarely recycled. A new California law is raising the bar.
The Plastic Recycling Hoax
Plastic is just about everywhere, and there’s going to be a lot more of it. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development expects global plastic use to triple by 2060. So what are we to do with all the waste?
How to Navigate A World Filled with Plastic
Plastics are everywhere, but L.A. Times environment reporter Susanne Rust thought she was doing a pretty good job avoiding them. That was until she spent a week recording her daily plastic interactions. She found plastics in her phone. Her car. Her swimming equipment. There was almost nothing that Rust encountered that didn’t have plastic in it.
A Slim Percentage of Plastic Gets Recycled. How Can We Change That?
The reports on plastic waste are staggering. Households in the U.S. generated 51 million tons of plastic waste in 2021 and 5 to 6% of that was recycled, according to Greenpeace. Beyond Plastics and The Last Beach Cleanup similarly puts the rate at 5 to 6%. On Cincinnati Edition, we're going to dive into these findings and talk about what happens when plastic is recycled, looking at the sorting and reprocessing of the material. Plus, we'll talk about what can and cannot be recycled and look at efforts to reduce plastic waste.