Recycling is Real’ campaign designed to challenge the mythology

The Plastics Industry Association says its campaign aims to combat “anti-recycling” rhetoric by educating legislators and companies. Advocates say that this is ignoring the problems with recycling plastics.

Dive Brief:

The Plastics Industry Association recently launched the Plastics Industry Association campaign designed to highlight the advantages of recycling plastic. The digital advertisement is directed at consumers, elected officials,government officials as well as elected lawmakers, and companies.

The organization plans to invest around $1 million to fund the “Recycling is Real” campaign that is designed to prove how “recycling is a vital link of the sustainability and circularity chain” and assist decision-makers “make more well-informed decisions about recycling resources for their constituents.”

The campaign is designed to counter statements from environmental organizations, including Beyond Plastics and Greenpeace, which have criticized plastics recycling as unproductive and inaccurate. These groups are in support of efforts to stop plastics production.

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Dive Insight:

Plastics’ latest outreach to lawmakers and brands highlights the tensions between the advocates and the industry as increasing numbers of state legislators propose legislation which could have a direct impact on the production and recycling of plastics. Plastics management has also been the focus of many congressional sessions in recent years. legislation in recent times.

In a press conference to announce the campaign, Plastics CEO Matt Seaholm explained that companies are making important decisions regarding recycled content as well as packaging designs in response to a range of influences, such as local laws and feedback from customers and are also facing “pressure being put on them by anti-recycling organizations” to opt for alternatives that aren’t plastic.

This campaign features videos from companies such as Novolex and Ultra-Poly. It is expected to include email blasts as well as other forms of communication. “Our task being the Plastics Industry Association is to demonstrate that we are able to reuse this material. We can transform it into products that can be used after having used it once or twice, possibly several times. That’s the purpose of this project,” he said.

Seaholm spoke of the recent prominent extended producer responsibility for package bills that were passed in New York as an example of how strong messages regarding plastic recycling and its benefits can impact the outcome of a bill. The bill was meant to require producers to cut down on packaging and also prevented the use of chemicals in recycling to be thought of as a recycling strategy for EPR reasons, was not able to be passed. A group of groups representing the plastic industry was against the measure, while environmental groups, like Beyond Plastics, saw the legislation as an effective method to curb plastic pollution. Similar disputes over the same laws have been fought across different states this year.

Beyond Plastics, called the Recycling is Real initiative, is a “cynical new public relations campaign” that fails to address the major issues regarding recycling in the U.S., the plastics recycling program.

“Year following year recycling of plastics is a shambles and has been averaging just below 10% recycling. I’m a big proponent of recycling however, the plastic material, in its entirety product typically isn’t recycling-friendly,” said Judith Enck, the director of Beyond Plastics Beyond Plastics, in a statement. The U.S. The EPA’s Report on Facts and Figures in 2018 states that the recycling rate for plastics was around 8.5. However, certain kinds of plastics have various rates.

Greenpeace is another organization that has been adamant about the plastics industry’s present and previous recycling efforts. The group published a study in May that stated it was the case that “plastics are inherently incompatible with a circular economy” and that brands’ commitments to using recycled plastics are not making significant environmental progress. The report also raised the possibility about the possibility that “dangerous chemicals” can find in recycled plastics.

While we wait, discussions on plastics recycling continue to be held at the national, state and international levels. State policymakers expect states to propose new EPR legislation on packaging for the upcoming year. It is the United Nations Environment Programme, which is currently in negotiations to negotiate an international legally binding agreement to tackle plastic pollution, recently released a draft proposal that contains a variety of ideas for tackling plastics through recycling and EPR methods, as well as other options.

The Federal Trade Commission is in the process of collecting feedback regarding how to update their green Guides, the document that outlines how to promote environmental claims without being misleading. The changes to this guideline could affect the way that brands select or advertise their packaging.