How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled
NPR and PBS Frontline (2020). 'How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled.' 11 September 2020, published alongside the documentary Plastic Wars. [NOT RE-READ ON THIS PASS. Carried from this vault's own external verification of 30 September 2026 as recorded on the Consumed hub, where it is the PREFERRED citation for the resin code and for the industry's internal doubts about recycling, in preference to the seed book. NOT A STUDY: investigative journalism working from internal industry documents.] WHAT IT SUPPORTS, as the vault's verification record holds it: a 1973 report to executives stating there is no recovery from obsolete products and that sorting is infeasible; a 1974 speech recording serious doubt that recycling plastic could be made economically viable; and a December 1989 memo by a named industry official, now dead, who is on that record in his own voice. THE INDUSTRY'S ANSWER TRAVELS WITH IT EVERY TIME: a then vice president of plastics at the American Chemistry Council told NPR the industry has never intentionally misled the public about recycling and that the past failure was one of infrastructure and market signals and not of intent. No accusation about any living named individual is carried anywhere from this source.
NPR and PBS Frontline (2020). 'How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled.' 11 September 2020, published alongside the documentary Plastic Wars. [NOT RE-READ ON THIS PASS. Carried from this vault's own external verification of 30 September 2026 as recorded on the Consumed hub, where it is the PREFERRED citation for the resin code and for the industry's internal doubts about recycling, in preference to the seed book. NOT A STUDY: investigative journalism working from internal industry documents.] WHAT IT SUPPORTS, as the vault's verification record holds it: a 1973 report to executives stating there is no recovery from obsolete products and that sorting is infeasible; a 1974 speech recording serious doubt that recycling plastic could be made economically viable; and a December 1989 memo by a named industry official, now dead, who is on that record in his own voice. THE INDUSTRY'S ANSWER TRAVELS WITH IT EVERY TIME: a then vice president of plastics at the American Chemistry Council told NPR the industry has never intentionally misled the public about recycling and that the past failure was one of infrastructure and market signals and not of intent. No accusation about any living named individual is carried anywhere from this source.
Written from the nOT RE-READ ON THIS PASS; carried from this vault's own external verification of 2026-09-30, recorded on the Consumed hub. Not a study.
What our sources record
Recorded when this source was checked, figures included, with page references and quotation marks removed.
NPR and PBS Frontline (2020). How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled. 11 September 2020.