And by the corporation for public broadcasting. Major support is provided by the john d. D catherine t. To building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information atma ound. Org. The Ford Foundation working with visionariesn thees frontlf social change worldwide. At fordfoundation. Org. Additional support is provided by the abrams foundation,le committed to exce in journalism. The park foundation, dedicad to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The john and Helen Glessnermi trust. Supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. And by thesm frontline urnaund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. Di and onal support from the millicent and eugene bell foundation. water burbling Laura Sullivan in 2015, ari ne biologist came across a sea turtle in distress. Oh. I dont want to pull it too hard. Yeah, i mean, its bleeding already. Ohpoor baby. Im sorry. bleep bleep christ. That is plastico. , man. Thats plastic. T dell me its a freaking straw. Ak its justg. Sullivan her video of the encounter quickly went viral. This poor sea turtle. Sullivan it would attract more than 35 million views. Became a rallying cry for action. Sullivan and focused public attention on a growing problem. That turtle video certainly a did haimpact. Plastic pollution a planetary crisis. Sullivan plastics in the oceans have been building up for decades. In an uerwater paradise, a plastic nightmare. Sullivan recurng images of dead whales. 80 plastic bags found inside the whale. Sullivan bloated seabirds. Oh. Sullivan . And littered waterways have fueled a global antiplastic movement. Enemy number one the plastic straw. Many u. S. Cities are taking steps to ban Plastic Grocery bags. Save our earth before its too late sullivan and yet, despthe backlash, the industry that makes plastic is expanding. The start of constr on that multibilliondollar plastics plant. Sullivan plentifulupplies of natural gas are driving down the cost of making plastic. The u. S. Is now one of the Worlds Largest plastic producers. Its going to be the largest plant of its kind the world. Sullivan and industry is investing tens of billions of ladollars in new plastic ps. Construction will eveually employ 6,000 people. Va sullin by 2050, its estimated that Global Production of plastic will triple. A plastic boom. Theres going to more plastic than eveon the face. Sullivan i wanted to understand how we came to this moment, how the Plastic Industry has been able to thrive all these years in the facof a growing crisis, and oppositiontr thats now sger than its ever been. For decades, the National Response to the growing asticwaste problem has focused on one solution recycling. And few places have pursuedcl recyg more aggressively than oregon. What we put in our recycling bins ends up in sorting plants like this one, outside of portland. Re wctually very full right now. Sullivan this is, this is all coming in fresh. This is the first unload, right . Yea so thats what it looks like when it comes in. Sullivan inod singh is the outreach manag at far west recycling. Sullivan every single piece of this be sorted in some way. Yeah, you have to separate paper and then the metals and th the plastics. Sullivan there are a lot of different kinds of plastics that have to be sorted. And what were doing here isi were sorting it outo the milk jugs, the natural hdpe, thw pigmented hdpe, p. Ater bottles. Ki sullivan theyre loo for plastics. Yeah so all the plastic will come off before the line ends. Sullivan some items, like soda bottles and milk jugs, are easier to recycle, so theres money to be made. So, this is all plastic that has a me. Sullivan but most other types of plastic are technicly diffict and often costly to recycle. And that makes them nearly impossible to sell. So they keep piling up. This is plastic that has nome ho this is plastic that has noso home, its your clamshells, ziploc bags, film, a cd, a food, like, a fo wrapper. Sullivan ithe business, theyre called mixed plastics. G now, youting more mixed plastics, like pouches, and everything comes in a, in a clamshell now. Sullivan so, if somebody throws their te bottle into their bin, thats a win. Yeah. Sullivan b what youre saying is youre seeing more and more of this stuff. Packaging is evolving. Sullivan most mixed plastics end up in a place like this. Re what youeeing happening fullsize, thats a, probably a 53foot trailer. Sullivan in medford, oregon, rogue disposals landfiltakes about a hundred loads of trash a day. And more and more of it is plastic. F plastms, plastic bags, the plastic wrapping that comes around a lotckaged goods that all goes into the garbage. Its margarine tubs, clamshells, the deli containers. Until there a viable option for recycling those things, we should be putting it ia landfill. Beullivan but thats not d fs the things we buy have beensi increaly packaged in plastic. Are you david . Im laura sullan. Very nice to meet you. Sullivan nice to meet you, too. Welcome to portland. Sullivan David Allaway is a senior policy analyst with theen oregon departmof environmental quality. So much of all this stuff in the Grocery Store is plastic now. Its really inexpensive. Sullin its an easy way to package it. It , and it performs, it performs very well. It has really good engineeringie qual it protects food very well. Sullivan this is my basic question, because it seems le everybody is buying lettuce in a x now. Is this recyclable . In this state, none of this is, none of this is recyclable. Sullivan okay, what about all these . This is everywhere in every supermarket. In oregon, again, there are no curbside ograms that would accept a of these tubs. Sullivan okay, so, this is classic, when, a lot of americans do this, like what youre doing right now. Yep, thats right. Ip sullivan they t over. What are we looking at . At the bottom of all these plastic containers is this little chasing arrow, the littln recyclsymbol, with a number. And the number, theres some. Ewords, it says, 1 p. E. T this package here is technicall. Recyclab you could recycle this in a lab. Sullivan okay. But its not economical to recycle it, given the current economics of recycling. Sullivan but if its not happening in oregon, imakes me wonder whats going on in the rest of the country. I yeah, i woulduld say that this package is rarely recycled in most parts in the country. Sullivan yeah. Can i give you another example here . Sullivan yes, please. E so, lets taka look at these blueberries. Sullivan okay. This is classic. And if you turn this over, you see the chasing arrows. On the bottom, it says, 100 recyclable. In there is no prograregon that wants this in the curbside mix. But more than half of all people that live in the portland area believe this belongs in the curbside container. Sullivan well, it says its recyclable. It says its recyclab it has the recycling logo. Its very confusing to a lot of people. Sullivan this confusion about what can a cant be recycled, and where plastic ultimately ends up, is no accident. Over the past year, weve been vestigating the plastic crisisof and found that manhe problems we face today were set in motion decades ago by the very companies who make plastic in the first place. One of those companies isnt du, and on the grounds of thfirst Dupont Family home, i found the Hagley Library old movie scorelaying it holds one of the Worlds Largest collections of industrial history. Ic this is an am city, a Real Community of homes and homemakers like thousands of others across the nation. We call it plasticstown, u. S. A. Sullivan id come to see what its archive could tell me about the evolution of the the table is set with polyethylene products, too. Sullivan americas postwar boom preseed endless opportunits for this new durable, lightweight material. Modernday miracles that were made with the help of petrochemicals. Sullivan from packaging to clothing to home furshings. Very durable. Sullivan plastics wideranging applicaons. Glassine, polyethylene, mylar. Sullivan . Promised a new world through chemistry. Step intohe world o manmade materials that take up where nature left off. The thing that made them unique was the ability to do more with just a little bit of material, to make things that we used lighter and more efficient. So, plastic came to be ud in many applications because it performed better. That was not a trick. It dia good job of doing what it was asked to do. M e life more efficient and easier. chanting save our earth sullivan but by 1970, the Plastic Industry would have to confront the Turbulent Times of ameras environmental awakening. I onen every ten americans took part in rallies. Sullivan earth day was one of the largest mass protests in u. S. History. Oh, earth day was profound in termheof people waking up to t fact that we live on a finite planet. Lo and there was of concern about the trend that was happening towards the more throwaway, disposable listyle. dramatic music playing sullivan in response, many compies, including plastice makers, and even s environmentalists, got behind an iconic ad campaign that focused attention onhe publics role. And i remember being a kid and watching those ads, the most famous one with the crying indian. Some people have a deep,ab ing respect for the Natural Beauty that was once this country. He was actually italian,ia dressed up like an i but the fake crying indian, the most famous one, ends with this very dramatic sentence where they say. People start pollution. S people cp it. T people all arou country bought that line and thought it was our responsibility to take care of litter. Ca americans d more trash than any other country in the world. Sullivan while the efforts to change Consumer Behavior helped clean up the more visible litter problem, they did little to address the ruse. What makes our lives convenient is burying us. Sullivan the uncheckedwa growth in househole. A barge filled with garbage is causing quite an international stink. Loaded with more than 3,000 tons of waste from new yorks long island. Sullivan by 1987, a wandering barge called the mobro became an emblem of the growing crisis. Greenpeace went and climbedug aboard it and took banner that we put on it. We sai next time, try recycling. Me it really be metaphor of, we are bumping up against limits here. We cannot keep just continuing this mindless consumerism, mindless consumption, and dump it somewhere else. American has a garbage sullivan at hagley, we found a collection of internal plastic ank you. Documents. voiceover . About this period of time, when the industry was in the crosshairs of the environmental movement, and plastics we under attack. As we continued reportg,e found even more internal spoke with over a dozen industry insiders, including three top executives who represented the big plastic producers and agreed me. Talk publicly for the first back then, one of the Vice President s at thsociety of the plastics industry was lew freeman. He now heads a loc enronmental coalition, but he remembers a pivotal boardme ing in the late 80s, when the industry was worried about its public image. The ve president of the Dupont Company pulled me asideu and said, you, ys better get up to wilmington. Theres dissatisfaction about whats going on with the soliwaste issue. We took a trek up to wilmington, and this one dupont executive, he said, i think if we had five Million Dollars which seemed like a lot of money then. Sullivan five million . We had five millionco dollars, we could, wd, we could solve this problem. Sullivan they created the council for solid wastewn solutions, drarom their ranks of bigil and Petrochemical Companies that made plastic, li amoco, evron, dow, and exxon. The group had a plan and turned to a veteran of the industry,ro liesemer, to execute it. They wanted to know, was i y interested in being the o actually made recycling happen across the u. S. . Sullivan i mean, you got handed this task. Yeah. Sullin . To recycle plastic in the united states. In the united states. Literally me. I had no staff. But i had millions of dollars to do what i felt was necessary. In a highly controversialac on, one county in new york state has voted to ban all packaging de of two kinds of plastic. Sullivan it was a critical moment. A growing backlashas threatening the future of plastic. In what may be part of a nailonal trend, the city cou of saint paul, minnesota, voted to outlaw the use of polystyrene plastics. Sullin liesemer was senten to minnesota on an u mission. Brandname companies that used plastic were facing bans on their products. There was an attitude that if your product was not recycled, then it should not be in the marketplace. Soit was up to us in the plastics industry to solve this problem so that they could continue to package their products in plasti sullivan and liesemer found a solution. To appease government officials, the industry funded a localcl reg pilot project. The industry attitude was, well set this up and get it going, but if the public wants it, they are going to have to pay for it. Sullivan the plastic bans were averted. Nk do you that they took a lesson away from how to fight the bans . Oh, yes. It was, we need to be doing things. Ullivan like what . Dont wait until legislation appears. Slivan youre saying preempt it. Yes, do it first. And we did. Sullivan did you feel like they cared more about selling plastic than they did about making recycling work . Making recycling work was a way to keep their prodts in the marketplace. Sullivan it s a way to sell plastic. Yes. On its a winwin situa you get recycling going, that has its benefits, and it improves the image of the terial. Sullivan the industry found another way to promote plastic using recycling. Responding to pressure from states and environmentalists to better identify the many types of plastic, it created a code tell them apart. That code was a numbering system put inside the wellknown symbol for recycling, the chasing arrows. R the probleyclers said, is that it left the impression that all those kinds of plastics were actually being recycled. Coy smith ran recycling centers in Southern California in the 1980s and early 9. All right, there you are. Plastics industry, they went around to states, and they convced those states to pass laws, and they did this very quietly. They passed laws that required that symbol with the number on it be put on plastic containers sold in that state. I mean, for most states, they did it in, recyclers didnt even know it happened. And the next thing you know, all the plastic containers havemb these s on them. Sullivan is this a good thing or a bad thing . Its a bad thing. Sullivan why . Because the average person saw the symbol, they know the symbol, and said, well, its recyclable, right . Li sn its got three arrows. Well, like, all of a sudden, our own customers, they would bring it in and not only say it has the triangle, but it would, they would flatout say, it it. Its recyclable right on and id be, like, i can tell you i cant give this away. Theres no one that would even take it if i paid for them to take it. Thats how unrecyclable it was. Sullivan stuck with plasticy thouldnt sell, smith and other recyclers met with representatives from the Plastic Industry. Do you see the one. He yeah,s my name, right there. Sulvan and came up with report identifying key problemsd with the numbering ce. Some firms are using it as a Green Marketing tool. The code is being misused. Sullivan the Plastic Industry that you were working with agreed to these and signed onto this report. Di the sullivan so they knew that these problems existed. They knew these problems existed, absolutely. Sullivan recyclers and theou plastic makers cldnt agree on how to change the code. Industry would only switch to a triangle, which recyclers said was too similar to the chasing arrows. Industry wouldnt even consider, say, no triangle, or a circle,an or, i. They didnt want to go anywhere near no triangle. We said, go to a square, go to some other symbol, just not the triangle, and they, they said, no. Coming up with ways to have their product perceived as re recyclable and more environmental makes their product look better. Theyant to sell more plastic coainers. Sullivan recyclers also appealed to government regulators, but they sided with industry. They sd that the chasing arrows symbol s okay, as long as it was small and on the bottom of packaging. What if its got a chasing arron sign on ityou think that means its getting recycled . Uh, that, that was one of the comments early, that it impliede that those products eing recycled. That wasnt the intent. W sullivae they . Were they misleading the public . I dont think so, bause when i looked at them, at the arrows, i thought, this is ade way toify the products so that recycling, the early stages of recycling can take place. Sullin but even as liesemer and his colleagues were publicly promoting recycling,prg expressed doubt it was ever gog to happen on a broad scale. One internal document from the society of the plastics indust cautioned, the techniques of cleaning and separating the mixed plastics. Has not beenal developed for large economic application. Another said, there are no effective marketechanisms for mixed plastic. D this document was candid there is serious doubt p widespresticecycling can ever be made viable on an economic basis. How could they go into all of these communities and tell people, you just have to recycle, when they knew there were so many problems and so h madles . Some were very skeptical but felt thehad to do it. I think others were, were more hopeful. E there was never husiastic belief that recycling was ultimately going to work in a significant way. Sullivan freemans boss at the time, larry thas, the head of the society of the plastics industry, was blunt about it. I was the front man for the plastics industry. No getting around it. Sullin thomas wouldnt sitwn or an oncamera interview, but agreed to talk on the phone. If the public thinks the recycling is working, then theyre not going to be as concerned about the environment. I think they knew that the infrastructure wasnt there to really have recycling amount to a whole lot. Ul svan thomas wrote a confidential memo in 1989 about the precarious position e industry was in. The image of plastics among consumers is deteriorating at an alarmingly fast pace, it says. Were approaching a point of no return. alysts are beginning to take notice. We Must Immediately undertake a Major Program of unprecedented proportions to reverse thisti fastmovinl wave of growing negative public perception. So the big plastic producers came up with a mu. Imilliondollar solution when you look at plastic. Va sul advertising. Helps things stay fresh and safe and light. It spent most of its money, dollars, on advertising. Plastic also saves energy. V to tout thetues of plastics as a way of heading ofc the crm the industry was experiencing. When we started that advertising program, i think the image of plastics was in the mid30s you know, 30, 35 favorability. Sullivan thats pretty low. If youre in politics, youre in deep trouble with a 35 . Rati presenting the possibilities of plastics. Wn they were running the advertising on television,t they were noout how plastics can be recycled, but all the wonderful things that plastics bring to us. Plastics make it possible. The fact that you now dont have to worry about dropping a shampoo bottle that was ma out of glass on the bathroom floor because its plastic. And thers nothing wrong in an dustry promoting those kind of things, but thats not addressing theroblem that people are criticizing you about. Sullivan and it worked . And it worked. Sullivan chuckles cause you went from 30 favorability. From, lets say mid30s to mid60s. Sullivan favorability. Mmhmm. commercial music playing glass . Thats the past. Thermaset is the future. Sullivan over the next several decades. What once was glass will soon be plastic. N sullilastic became the unrivaled material of choice for consumers. Es busy lifest and a growing urban population mean an increase in demand for food that is fresh. Sullivan plast exploded. Convenient. T sullivan from 192010, production more than doubled. And fast. Flexible packaging has become part of our daily lives. Sullivan and with all that new plastic came mountains o Plastic Waste. Here we are at our gdb south sullivan south, ok. In new jersey, i met a man who built a 180 million recycling business off of that waste. Use and discard, and then this is where it all ends up. Sullivan sunilagaria is naonal chairman of the institutfor rap recyclingi, the industries. His company buys throwaway plastic from some of the largest bigbox stores in the u. S. Oh, my god, what is this . Ha this is jusers, one type of plastic. Sulliva gasps why are these all here . Well, you would imagine that when youu know, you take a garment off the rack and take it to the checkout cnter. Sullivan yes. Then this should go back. Sullivan that they would just reuse it. Yeah, but they said, oh, yow know whall just buy new hangers. In the meantime, let me juste recyis. Sullivan oh, boy. Hanger gets used one time. Im one sullivan startinin the late 90s, bagaria and other recycling brokers had a onewor answer to thowing plasticwaste problem china. I mean, china did a big onest for the recycling in, i must say. Sullivan yeah. You know, because, as lonas it remotely resembled plastic, they wanted it. Y sullivan tuld take it. Yeah polystyrene, p. E. T. , pvc,olypropylene. Because thats how big a demand of manufacturing was there in china. They wanted raw material. Give me raw material, thats all they wanted. Sullivan how long did that go on for . Almost 20 years. But later, we surely realized that there was always another aspect of what was going on in china. Sullivan whichas what . They would just take, like, the lowhanging fruits. Sullivan the good stuff. Good stuff, easy to do. Sullivan yeah. And the remaining Plastic Waste will then be disposed of. Sullivan eventually, the reality oft was happening in china became clear. These chinese children spend most otheir waking hours between plumes of smoke and mountainof plastic. Sullivan and in 2018, china stopped taking imported Plastic Waste. Ou now thery is trying to clean up its image. Se bece thght that it was getting recycled gave us the freedokay, no problem, lets, let me continue to use it. Ti it is tely getting recycled. What is the, what is the problem . We never asked the question, are they doing it the, the right way . Are we damaging the environment more in the name of recycling . Sullivan when the recycling market in china went away, bagaria and other broker scrambled to find a new home for their plastic. And countries like indonesia saw a business opportunity. Last fall, i met up with bagaria there. He was checking out a recycling company that he ses his plastic to. This is his factory. Sullivan this is youry. Fact yeah. Sullivan bagaria had come to make sure his plastic was actually beingecycled and turned into tiny pellets that are usedo make new plastic products. Sullivan ah, therey are. This is the holding tank. Sullivan hot pellets. How much resnsibility do you feel like you have over whats happening here . The scrap. We are the shipper of it all originates with us. We could ship scrap and hope that it is being recycled in the way it should be. Or thether way is, come here, see how serious he is about doing it the right way. Sullivan but there are growing concerns here that a lot of Plastic Waste is not being handled the right way, and tindonesian officials areing to prevent what happened in china from happening here. Is this one of the big priorities here . Yeah. speing local language sullivan so, contaminated plastic trash is as big a problem for u guys as narcotics and drugs coming into the country . Eah, yeah, yeah. Sullivan wow. Last year, ctoms found that half the containers of Plastic Waste they inspected. Sir, sir, can you explain little bit . Ullivan . Were contaminated with trash and plastic that cant be recycled. We wanted to see for ourselves what was happening to the plastic coming here. Er oh, its right there . Yeah. Sullivan that opening . Onrecycling company here caught our attention. Yeah, pt new harvestindo. voiceover based on indonesian customs documents wed obtainedt 191 ners being held right now. Lets just go knock and see ifma ybe someone will talk to us. voiceover with the help of an indonesian journalist, we tried to speak to someone at new harvestindo. E available. Told there was n we need to confirm. speaking local language is the data that we have is correct or not . Li sulvan can we come in and look . Ournalist speaking local language guard responds sullivan looks like a lot of shipping containers. Yeah. Sullivan i think were in the right place. Yeah. Sullivan the customs document we had said the company was getting plastic from the u. S. With no one from new harvestindo willing to speak to us, we still doing with all those bales of Plastic Waste and whether it was all being recycled. Wed heard about an environmental activist whos been tracking what happens to the plastic coming into indonesia. Hi. I met up with Yuyun Ismawati in a small Rural Community nearby. This place, its huge. Yeah. W its huge and verye. You can sefrom that corner to the end of that valley over there. Sullivan whats it like to look at a field this size and i see it coverplastic trash . I can show you the pictures. Sullivan oh, really, youto pictures . Yes. Sullivan yeah, id love to see that, yeah. Si we took a seat by th of the road, and she showed meol pictures shedlected of plastic that locals said had been dumped here. The sacks are from a plastic company. When i came here in june, ie asd them, whd they get this from . And then they said its from harvest, they call it. Sullivan harvest. voiceover Waste Pickers would look for plastics of value, and the rest would bburned. So, this is how it looked like when they burn it. Sullivan so its like a big, sort of a big fire on this pit. A yeah. People with respiratory probm, they really get affected. And some children got hospitalized. horn honks ft sullivan a the community complained to the government about the burning, the dumping opped here. I mean, how, how big a problem do you think these kinds of dumping grounds are in indonesia . Big. They are everywhere around this area. Sy here, the recyclinem that we have at the moment is not really recycling, because some part of it exported, being exported all over the world, to be recycled. Sullivan yeah. But you never know whether its really recycled, beinged recyverseas or not. There is no proof. Sullivan we reached out to the two recycling companies known locally as harvest. New harvestindo still wouldnt respond to us, and the other company denied it was hind the dumping. But later that night, on a back street, i met up with a newes hando worker who agreed to talk to me about what the company does with its Plastic Waste. Hi. Hi. Sullivan thank you so much for coming to meet me. voiceover as long as we didnt disose his identity. When you get a bale of plastic, how much of that bale is plastic that the company wants, and how much of it is stuff that is just plastic that youre not going to do anything with . speaking local languag va sullin what do you do with the rest of it . Sullivan how long has that been going on for . Ouldullivan he told me he take me to a place where the company had recently bn dumping plasc. After a 30minute drive, we reached a quiet neighborhood ad. H an area hidden from the the smell of burnt plastic was in the air. And all around, there were sacks of plastic and big piles, too. This is from purchase, new york. This is totally american. This is from california. This is a pile of u. S. Cl reg. voiceover new harvestindo nied it was responsible fornd doing anything that damaged the environment. It sd in an email that it had a comprehensive system to handle Plastic Waste,nd it folls all indonesian laws and regulations. The company has not been charged with any wrongdoing related to mping. In last 20 years, weve seen more environmental degradations and environmental problems in indonesia because we are struggling to, to cln up the modern debris and modern litter indonesia. The additional burden of waste fromverseas, i dont know ho we are going to handle it. Sulliva youre saying youve got plenty as it is. Yes, because we, we are struggling to handle our own waste. Is ending up in the ocean. Waste one study estimates that 60 of Ocean Plastic comes from asia. What do you think americans need to know . Americans need to know that your waste ended up here. An the consumption and lifestyle that you have, i think its, you have to rethink,ca e have to reduce the amount of plastics that we, tha we produce at ment. Save our rth before its too late sullivan that message is reinvigorating a backlash against plastic, theikes of which the industry hasnt seen for decades. I can talk loud. Sullivan ts facing opposition to the construction of new plants. Everybody up here sd they dont want the plant. There shouldnt be any more talk about it. As of today, plastic ba are banned in jersey city. Sullivan and plastic bans are spreading across the country. This is our moment, california. Lets get these bills passed. Ts do right by our futu sullivan a major showdown is shaping up in california. The legislature wants to imposes new fees on c makers and restrict singleuse plastics. This is a big moment. Va sul this is big moment. Yeah, so, if the california market changes, we know its gointo put pressure on kind of, the kind of products that are out there. Sullivan amid the backlash, i headed to the texas gulfre coast, wil and gas companieare under pressure from Climate Change and increasingly turning to plastics, now their biggest growth market. We reached out to more than a dozen major plastic makers. T the only ot would sit down with us was chevron phillips. Jim becker is the Vice President of sustainability. Youve seen california, the legislation. Yeah, yeah. Ba sullivan som across the country, and a lot of targets on singleuse plastic. Uhhuh, yeah, our view is, you have to be very careful with that, cause sometimes the substitute products can have a bigger Environmental Impact than the thing you are banning. Sulliva right. So, we dont think banning these products is necessarily the, the right way to go. Illips want to see happen . On we support, actually, theme c. C. Goalscan chemistry council. Sullivan yeah. Goals of getting Plastic Waste out of landfills by, i think, the date is 2040. Sullivan chevron phillips would like to see all of thated plastic recyack to maketh new plastigs . Yeah. Sullivan how, how do you ge it to a place wh0 of w do you get there . G recycled . Much more Education Needs to happen. Ullivan yeah. On how to recycle. You so have to really build up the infrastructure for collection. Were going to have to invest in innovation, because some ofes technologies still need to be further developed. Sullivan if the oil dustry is able to get 100 of, of the material recycled. Yea sullivan doesnt that affect the bottom line . Yes, it would, it would, b the alternative is, having Plastic Waste in the environment. We dont want that. Slivan you think that the company feels so strongly that it is willing to make less money . I think thats true. I guess i think of it more as an investment in managing Plastic Waste. O sullivae again, the industry is puing recycling. Today, its mn lobbying group is the american chemistry council, and until recently, its Vice President of cs was steve russell. You fundamentally think thatn the united states, recycling could ramp up to a capacity to handle the vast majority of plastic thats being produced . So, i understand that theres a lot of skepticism around that, because the systems today have not kept pace. Our system is woefully inadequate, and it needs dramatic invtment. It needs improvement. But the proof here is the dramatic amount of investment thats happening right now. Our member companies, sabic an shell and lyondellbasell, all of whom have made major announcements in traditional and advanced recycling to begin to intervene in that space in order to bring their scale, their technical knowhow, and theiro capacityart providing products that are based on waste. B sulliva youre talking about a couple of companies. Theres also an entire industry that going to triple production by 2050. Mmhmm. Sulliva how are those two things going to meet anywhere in the middle . Its not going to happen this month or by the end of the year, buwere moving now. Old types of recycling need to be modernized, and new types of recycling need to be brought on board. The good news is theyre coming. Found one of these newregon, i technologies. In south portland, the Plastic Industry was showcasing a demonstration oject. Has everybody got their gear . Sullivan and on the day i stopped by, local lawmakers had ten invited in to hear ab the benefits of a new sorting machine that industry says will make recycling plastic more economical. If you want to step up, up above, you can see the machine in action. Sullivan one of the onsors was the american chemistry council. The idea behi that particular facility is if, if we improve the way that, thatmo reclable down the conveyor belt, right, so they get separated, were going to create better, cleaner streams of like materials. When we do that, we end up withe that are more easy to sell and that are more easy for consumergoods cpanies to incorporate into their packaging. Sullivan but as we continued our reporting in oregon, we heard about a surprisingly similar effort that took place more than 25 years ago, at ain recycompany 50 miles away called garten services. O were going inte office. Ive got a couple of newspaper articles i want to show you from the past. Sullivan the Plastic Industry had brought amo tration project here in 1994. The Garten Foundation of a salem unveilew sorting machine that may change the way we recycle forever. Sorting system in sale thestic first of its kind in the world. So here, weve collected so Old Newspaper articles from 1994. Po sullivan will gate is the chief operating officer of garten. I mean, it says, sorts o the problem. Sullivan a sorting. A sorting machine, thats right. Ou sullivan ot this from. From the plastics council. Sullivan the plastics. They wanted us to sort plastics, when people thought plastics mig be starting to be a problem. Today, the American Plastics council unveiled the machine. Nt they say resiwill put all their plastic containers in one bag. It just kps getting better, doesnt it . Sullivan what, what happened to it . Years later, we, it, we shut it down, because there was no way to make money at i and we sold that 1. 5 million machine for scrap. Sullivan you sold the machine foscrap. For scrap, thats right. Ma it didn any sense. And im afraid that that samein thg is happening right now. This is the plastic that nobody wants. The whole idea about, oh, just sort better,tll be great. Lets make more singleuse plastics dont buy into that. Not a good idea for thero enent, not a good idea for the earth, not a good idea for your wallet. Sullivan you cant sort youu waof this. No, no, period. Wonder whether the Plastic Industry is just recycling old ideas. They said i couldnt dream. M calla piece of trash and swore thats all id ever be. Sullivan like in the 90s, the industry has been spending money on ads. And now im what ive always wanted to be. Sullivan . Encouraging consumers to recycle. Remember, a lot of theth plastic packagin you have in your kitchen is recyclable. Smoke jumping is the pinnacle of wildland firefighting. Sullivan and touting thes virtue plastic. Were covered in plasticbased gear from head to toe. commercial muc playing commercial music playing this is the world we see. Lets be the ones. That came together to change the world. Sullivan what do you think . Deja vu all over again. Sullivan why do you say that . Tell me about that. This is the same nd of thinking that ran in the, in the 90s. Sullivan what do you think the messaging is here . Its showing the peopleg pick the litter. That kind of implies that thats where the responsibility lay. I think the chemical industry, and the plastics indtry specifically, need to take very seriously this reaction thats going on. I dont think this kind ofis adveg is, is helpful to them at all. Lately, theres been a t of talk about how plastics impact our lives, for better or worse. Sullivan the reality is, for all the ads and promises over the ars, its estimated that no more than ten percent of plastic has ever been recycled. And the guy industry tapped decades ago to get recycling going isnt surprised. I showed ron liesemer industryrt repowe found dating as far back as the 1970s. And this one talks about the cost of serating plastics from other trash, therere variousla types ofics, and that the cost of new plastic is so low that sorting and reprocessing ifused plastic cant be jud economically. And this was in 1973. Have we made any progress . I would say that their conclusions in 1973, you said . Are still true. The economics that are described there are, still prevail today and likely will prevail tomorrow. Sullivan is hard to have faith in the plastics industry, when it got out of its crisis in the 90s by telling americans to recycle, even though ty knew it was not ecomically viable. The crisis passed. Now here we are again in a crisis. Plastics are once again on the, inion, and now the industry is telling the public again to recycle. The industry is not telling the public just to recycle. Weve got to fix the recycling system, clearly, thats, thats job one. But more importantly, we have to look at reuse models, using less where we can, developing new materials which is the plastic makers responsibility thatbe caetter recycled, and also really impornt that we deployth technologies that are now available to us at scale. This is just an industry coming up with a way to get out of a crisis. No, no, this is about all of us uerstanding that we each have a role to play in, in making the system that we have better and achieving the goalsat think everybody would have to say, we cannot continue with business as usual. Ch its time foge, and this is that time. Sullivan hmm. Lets put these away. And let me show you another recycling label. Sullivan back in oregon, i put the question to dad allaway. The question that people are going to have is, what are they supposed to do to make this better . The common refrain in this whole elis that its all up to consumers. And thats the way recycling has been sold, as well, okay . An you just need to sort out your recyclables and do your part. , your part, save the ear recycle. And when it comes to understanding and reducing thevi nmental impacts of materials, including packaging, consumers have the lowest amoun. Of lever the big leverage is with the producers. S producould disclose the environmental impas of their materials publicly. And by impacts, i dont mean whether or not it can be recycled. Th i mean, what icarbon footprint . What are the toxics emissions . How much water was withdrawn to produce this product . Sullivan the effect on the planet. The effect on the planet. Sullivan that this product has. Thats right. Heres this flexible bag, and its a, its a plasticmetal laminate. Sullivan allaway is a leading thority on the Environmental Impacts of mateals like plastic. So youre saying consumers stand here and think, what can i recycle . But the question really is, how i reduce . Reduce the impact. The producers know what the different formats are,heythese dont disclose it. Instead, what they disclose is the recycling logo. Because what it allows industry to do is, it allows industry to keep the conversation focused on ecycling, and never move conversation on to the bigger issues, whh are the full Environmental Impacts of all thistuff. Sullivan but it isnt just industry thats kept consumers focused on recycling for so long. Environmentalists have, too. Looking back, do you think putting the banner on the mobro was a mistake . You know, i have looked at that picture and ponred that for decades. I think we were naive. I think we were overly opmistic about the potenti of recycling. And perpetuating that narrative led us astray. I mean, absolutely, society wide, we bought this myth that recycling will solve the problem anwe dont need to worry abo the amount of plastic being produced. Sullivan in washington last november, during america recycles week. Welcome to e. P. A. s 2019 america recycles innovation fair. Sullivan e. P. A. An administrator ew wheeler was talking up the future of recycling. In many ways, were just getting started. N d to increase the interest in and demand for Recycled Materials and more products made from Recycled Materials. Sullivan companies came with their latest ideas. Its 100 recycled content. Sullivan some, like keurig, saw a need for better technology. Hi, im Laura Sullivan, npr and pbs frontline. Whats happening with kps . Kcups are going recyclable. Sullivan i mean, you got a, couple of hurdles, in t sense that youre going to have to have people sorting out tiny cupsright . Ideally, mechanical sorting. Sullivan how many kcups do you sell . About 11 billion. N sulli1 billion, a year . A year. Sullivan so, the idea would be mechanical sorters pick out 11 billion kcups, right . De ly, we want all of them back. Sullivan others, like colgatepalmolive, saw a need for better education. So, were here today toca sh our firstofitskind recyclable tube. Sulvan so, if, if you put this in your curbside tonight, do you think that th tube would be recycled . We need more work. Were working with other organizations to get the word out. Sullivan so, not yet not yet, not yet. Sullivan i notice that you guys put the big chasing aows. Correct. Sullivan do you think that because its not quite a little misleading . That might we dont think that were being misleading becausecl technically it is rele. Sullivan as i made my way through the innovation fair. Ke we are ep america beautiful, were a nonforprofit. Sullivan you guys have been. Around for a long ti weve been around for over 65 years. Sullivan the mood was optimistic. Less than ten percent of plastic has actually ever been recycled. What do you think . Well, that is a, its a challenge, and i think whats good is that were all working together to help improve someli of those rec habits and understanding behavior. Li sn do you think that america can recycle its way out of this plastic crisis . W i belieh the proper infrtructure and the proper education, and we all work together, as aollective, we ca wi the world is flooded th plastic garbage. 18 billion pounds of Plastic Waste end up in the ocean ever ar. The equivalent of a garbage truck dumped every minute. Sullivan how does thisct confliompare to what you saw en in the 80s and 90s, when this sort of last came up with this kind of fervor . Well, one thing thats different is, the, the actual ecological context is differenta that werey bumping up like, we cant delay trts. Another ten, 20, 30 years, or were going to. Is sullivan so, thit. This, this is it. S for the oil and dustry, the stakes are higher, too, because singleuse plastic is their plan b. Theyre not going to be able to continue drill that oil and gas and burn it for energy anymore, because the climate cant sustain it. So this is their lifeline. Oi they are to double down on singleuse plastic like we have so were heading towards a real battle. Is is, this is the big war. The u. N. Estimates, by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. Plastic in your food. Microplastics are invading our water supply. Sullivan how big a moment is this . I think its a transitional i think it is a big moment. Sullivan biggest youve seen, in your career . Its the biggest iveeen. This is the first time youve ever seen companiefrom across the whole supply chain a coming together to, to say, we need to fix this. T so you ck about this stuff a lot. We have to show hard results. We have to srt showing success. And we know that. Sullivan 40 years on, despite a plastic cris thats been getting worse, the industrys future seems bright. Demand for lowcost plastics continue grow. And the production of new plastic is rapidly expanding. Science tells us that we need to significantly reduce our use of merials overall, and yet for the most part, the policymakers are stillocused with laserlike intensity onre cling. Theres nothing wrong with promoting recycling, except when recycling sucks all the oxygen out of the room, and we nevedo anything else. Fothe last 40 years, the conversation in this country has been about the recycle part of reduce, reuse, recycle. Ul van that wasnt an accident. No, it was not an accident. It w created. It was manufactured. Go to pbs. Org frontline for more on what consumers r need to know aboycling. The little recycling symbol with a number. And follow our latest reporting on the coronavirus. Including a new series of our podcast, the frontline diatch. If you could look atitaly. What is the advice youre those of us living inrs america . Theyre saying get ready because this is ve, very real. Connect with the Frontline Community on facebook and twitter, and watch anytime on the pbs video app, or pbs. Org frontline. Narrator the crackdown on chinese muslims. The number of people that can be held is unprecedented. Woman narrator frontline goes undercover to trace the missing. Can i trust you narrator and exposes a nextgeneration surveillance state. The combination of cuttingge technology and brutal policing methods to control a population. Narrator china undercover. Narrator coming in april. 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