On 29th April the Attorney-General of California made a very aggressive attack on the industry.
For years the oil companies and plastic manufacturers have been warned that their business is under threat because plastic creates microplastics and is very persistent in the environment. The only way to respond to this threat is to use and support biodegradable masterbatch technology, which can be put into their products so that they will no longer be persistent in the open environment. They have not listened, and have continued to place their faith in recycling.
I wrote about this in Bioplastics News on 8th April 2020 Dumb Oil and Gas Majors, Scrapping Plastic Bans and Taxes and San Francisco in an article headed “How could the oil & gas majors be so dumb?” This issue has now been taken up by the State of California
Now the industry faces a serious and immediate threat, which could easily spread beyond California. The Attorney-General said:
“My office is subpoenaing Exxon Mobil, a major source of global plastics pollution for information related to the decades-long plastic deception campaign. Our investigation will examine the industry’s historic and ongoing efforts to deceive the public, and whether and to what extent these actions may have violated the law. This investigation could not have come at a more urgent moment. We are in a global plastics pollution crisis – there’s no other way to put it.
More than 300 million tonnes of plastic oil-based products are produced annually – a nearly 20,000% increase since the 1950s. This is unsustainable. As fossil fuels continue to be replaced by clean energy, big oil has doubled down on plastics as their revenue lifeline, recently investing an additional $208 billion to expand plastic production worldwide.
First; big oil’s plastics pollution crisis is harming our environment. Every year tens of millions of tonnes of plastic pervasively pollute our oceans our rivers our beaches our bays, our coasts – costing the state an estimated half a billion dollars each year.
Second; big oil’s plastic pollution crisis may be harming our health. [Ordinary] plastic does not fully degrade – instead breaking down into smaller pieces called micro plastics. Every week we consume the equivalent of a credit card’s worth of plastic through the water we drink the food we eat, and the air we breathe – each of us consuming more than 40 pounds of plastic over our lifetimes.
This crisis is happening as recent reporting has uncovered internal documents from the 1970s warning industry executives that recycling was infeasible and that there was serious doubt that plastic recycling can ever be made viable on an economic basis. Indeed despite the industry’s decades-long recycling campaign, plastic pollution is as pervasive and as harmful as ever.
Our investigation will focus on this half-century campaign of deception and the ongoing harm cause to the state, our residents, and our natural resources. We’re going to target companies that have caused and exacerbated the global plastics pollution crisis, we’re going to investigate their role in perpetuating myths around recycling, and then we’re going to investigate the extent to which this deception continues and is still on going. We will not hesitate to hold these companies accountable if the law was violated.”
It is time for the industry, and organisations like the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, to stop relying on recycling and start talking to experts in biodegradable technology such as the scientists at Symphony Environmental.
Plastics marketed as compostable will not solve this problem. See Composting
Michael Stephen
Michael Stephen is a lawyer and was a member of the United Kingdom Parliament, where he served on the Environment Select Committee. When he left Parliament Symphony Environmental Technologies Plc. attracted his attention because of his interest in the environment. He is now Deputy Chairman of Symphony, which is listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange, and is the founder and Chairman of the Oxo-biodegradable Plastics Association.
Earlier Postings in this Column
All articles of Michael Stephen can be found here
- 1/ 1/ 20 – Plastiphobia, Microplastics and A Throw-Away Society
- 7/ 1/ 20 – Recycling, Lab Testing, Bangladesh and the Right Bioplastic
- 14/1/20 – Plastiphobia and Bioplastics Definitions
- 21/1/20 – Composting, the European Union and Unemployment
- 30/1/20 – Plastiphobia, Malaysia and a Case Against Compostables and Paper
- 7/02/20 – Coronavirus, MPs Letter, Montreal, Australia and the Dominican Republic
- 14/02/20 – Oman, MacArthur Foundation, Stifling Innovation, South Africa and Compostable Plastics
- 24/02/20 – Serbia, India, Pakistan and European Bioplastics
- 03/03/20 – Plastic To Protect Health and Common Sense on Plastic
- 10/03/20 – Plastiphobia, Singapore, Compostable Plastics, Doorknobs and Carbios
- 17/03/20 – Greening our Way to Infection, Defra Warns Against Bioplastics and Montreal
- 24/03/20 – Ditch the Plastic Bag Ban and Inn-Probio
- 01/04/20 – The Come Back of Plastic Bags, Compostable Plastic Not Wanted and EASAC
- 16/04/20 – Coronavirus and Agricultural Plastics
- 11/05/20 – Coronavirus, Peru, Barbados and Recycling
- 18/05/20 – Say No to Plastiphobia, False Descriptions and the Recycling Myth
- 02/06/20 – Definitions and More Setbacks for Plastiphobia
- 11/06/20 – BBIA, Food Waste and Testing of OXO-Biodegradable Plastic
- 19/06/20 – Oxo Biodegradation, Independent Reports and Precautionary Principle
- 29/06/20 – Banana Republic, Why Turn Plastic into CO2 and Plastic Waste from Ships
- 13/07/20 – Running Scared, The Daily Telegraph and Market Report
- 20/07/202 – Tipa, Plastics Today and The American Genius
- 27/07/20 – Coronavirus, Plastic Litter, Bahrain and Polymateria
- 17/08/20 – Plastics Europe, Confusing Issues and Paper
- 25/08/20 – Professor Emo Chiellini, Plastics Today, Greenwashing and Coronavirus
- 28/09/20 – Kill the Virus, Marine Degradation, Airports, Brazil Retail, Plastic Growth and Face Mask
- 08/10/20 – Compostable vs Biodegradable, Covid 19 and New British Bioplastic Standard
- 27/10/20 – Power of Lobbying, Paper and Cotton Worse than Plastic
- 02/11/20 – Covid 19 and Five Myths About Plastic
- 09/11/20 – Support for OXO BIO, Westminster Forum, Euractiv and Covid
- 23/11/20 – Toxicity of Bio-based and Biodegradable Plastics, and Covid Scaremongering
- 15/12/20 – Recycling and An Article from Austria
- 21/12/20 – EU Scientific Advisers, China Chose Wrong Bioplastics and Covid Nonsense
- 05/01/20 – EU, Covid Lockdowns, WRAP, British Standards Institution and Polymateria
- 12/01/21 – Intertek and Composting
- 19/01/21 – Recycling and Exporting Plastic Waste
- 22/02/21 – Seaweed Plastic, Orange Peel and Xampla
- 02/03/31 – OXO Biodegradable Plastic
- 08/03/21 – EU Scientific Reports and Paper vs Plastic
- 15/03/21 – India, Australia and Dow Chemicals
- 14/04/21 – Oxomar, UK Government and Microplastics
- 26/04/21 – Plastic to the Rescue of Covid and More News from Brazil
- 04/05/21 – Packaging Digest
- 07/06/21 – Minderoo Report and Korea Herald
- 30/06/21 – Recycling, Is the Use of Biobased Plastics Increasing, Confused Australians and Biodegradable Future
- 12/07/21 – EU Flawed Directive, Thailand and Pakistan
- 21/07/21 – Directors Talk, Confusion, Stir Magazine and Dumping Plastic Waste
- 02/08/21 – Angry Farmers, DEFRA and Substitutes for Plastic
- 06/09/21 – Microplastics
- 13/09/21 – UK Government, Defra and David Newman
- 20/09/21 – Michael Stephen Video Interview on Antimicrobial and Biodegradable Packaging
- 05/10/21 – Freedom of Information and Plastic Waste Solutions
- 14/10/21 – Michael Stephen at Pack4Change Summit
- 22/10/21 – Plastic from Algae and Carbon Dioxide
- 15/11/21 – Defra
- 22/11/21 – Defra, India, Food Service Footprint Magazine and Waste 360
- 30/11/21 – RWM Digital Spotlight and Plastiphobia
- 17/12/21 – Disposal in the Right Way and Defra Consultation Responses
- 04/01/22 – Precautionary Principle, Anti Oxo Campaign and Defra
- 11/01/22 – Microplastics
- 17/01/22 – Michael Laurier, A Saucy Problem and Unilever
- 21/02 /22 – No Alternative for Plastic
- 08/03/22 – Sustainable Agriculture, Canada, Consequence of Banning, United Nations
- 14/03/22 – Plastiphobia (FREE)
- 04/04/22 – Virgin Mobile, Defra, OXO, Microplastics, End of Life Options
- 11/04/22 – Ellen MacArthur Foundation
- 09/05/22 – Response to Association of Plastic Recyclers (FREE)
Interview with Michael Stephen
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed here by Michael Stephen and other columnists are their own, not those of Bioplasticsnews.com.