Thread by @GreenpeaceCA

Did you know: Recycling is an oil industry lie, invented and pushed as a 'solution' to the plastic crisis in the 1980s and 1990s to placate the public and avoid bans?

Story time! ⤵️ #ZeroPlasticWaste #Plastic #PlasticBan

Back in the 1980s/1990s, the public was becoming increasingly concerned about the amount of plastic garbage accumulating in the environment. So much so that the industry was facing a serious possibility of plastic bans – the ultimate nightmare for Big Oil.

Plastic bans would have interfered with their ability to profit off production of virgin plastics.

So they presented RECYCLING as the solution – and then spent tens of millions promoting it via ads, recycling projects + PR campaigns, telling people plastic could be recycled.

But there was a problem: Big Oil knew full well that Recycling was not actually a solution to the #PlasticCrisis at all.

npr.org/2020/09/11/897… @NPR

👉internal records from the 1970s show industry officials long knew recycling plastic on a large scale = not economically viable. The process of collecting, sorting and turning old plastic into new plastic was too difficult and too expensive (producing virgin plastic is cheaper)

👉they also knew plastic can only be recycled once or twice before it becomes unusable. The material loses its integrity & becomes garbage.

Recycling also doesn't address that plastic pollutes all across its lifecycle, fuelling climate change and poisoning frontline communities.

👉Larry Thomas, former president of the Society of the Plastics Industry, told @NPR: "If the public thinks that recycling is working, then they are not going to be as concerned about the environment."

Oops, Big Oil told on themselves AGAIN.

Recycling isn't just a false solution. It's a smokescreen to carry on business as usual.

#ZeroPlasticWaste #PlasticFree #Recycle #ZeroWaste #Recycling #PlasticBan #PackageFree

Big Oil makes $400 BILLION per year on plastic production – and as demand for oil in other sectors falls due to #ClimateAction, the industry plans to TRIPLE plastic production by 2030 to make up for lost profits.

This can NOT happen.

forbes.com/sites/danielca…

A #PlasticBan targeting only 3% of plastic waste – which is what Canada's current ban does – carries on this false industry fairytale that recycling works, while giving them a green light to increase production.

Relying on recycling to get us to #ZeroPlasticWaste won't cut it.

Tell @s_guilbeault @jyduclos, you MUST #ExpandTheBan to include:

🚫all takeout containers/cups
🚫bottles
🚫filtered cigarettes
🚫sachets, pouches, wrappers
🚫bags, wrap
🚫produce stickers
+ toxic substances found in plastics

#ZeroPlasticWaste #Cdnpoli

act.gp/3Y3DtUG