For decades, plastic producers knowingly misled the public about the feasibility of plastic recycling, according to a recent study by the Center for Climate Integrity. The non-profit’s report details how the plastic industry marketed recycling as a solution to plastic waste for decades, all while dismissing it internally as both technically and economically unviable.

This may be a tough pill to swallow for those who grew up hearing about the virtues of plastic in ad campaigns (see: “plastics make it possible”). However, statistically, most plastic is either landfilled or burned—just about 9 percent is ever recycled, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, an intergovernmental group. ...

The Center for Climate Integrity’s study pins the blame not on consumers, who typically shoulder such criticism, but instead on oil and gas companies and the plastic industry itself. The industry’s actions “effectively protected and expanded plastic markets,” the report states, “while stalling legislative or regulatory action that would meaningfully address plastic waste and pollution.” 

(via Instapundit)