Planet Tracker: ‘Plastic industry is shifting the blame onto consumers’

According to the report, the plastic industry has been promoting recycling as the “solution” to the world’s plastic pollution crisis, despite “only 9% of plastic” being recycled globally.

The study, ‘The plastic recycling deception’, said that the focus on recycling has allowed the industry to “protect its profit margins”.

According to Planet Tracker, the plastic industry’s use of resin identification codes (RIC), often mistaken for recycling symbols, has also further misled policymakers, regulators and consumers into “believing in the circularity of plastic”.

‘Illusion of recyclability’

“The plastic industry’s tactics have successfully shifted focus away from upstream measures, such as limiting production and adopting alternative materials,” said John Willis, director of research at Planet Tracker. “By promoting the illusion of recyclability, the industry has effectively passed the financial burden of waste treatment onto local municipalities and waste-pickers, often the financially weakest link in the plastic supply chain”.

With plastic production reportedly set to triple by 2060 and lifecycle emissions from plastics estimated to more than double, accounting for 4.5% of global emissions, the report has called on “upstream corporates to take responsibility for their role” in plastic pollution by adopting a “clear plan” to transition production towards “safe, environmentally sound and sustainable” materials.

The report cited a “financial market blind spot” on the issue of plastic pollution, stating that financial markets have bought into the recycling illusion by assigning “low equity risk premia” to plastic producers.

Planet Tracker has called on investors, lenders and insurers to consider the “full spectrum of risks” associated with plastic pollution.

‘Part of the solution’

Richard Wielechowski, senior investment analyst at Planet Tracker, said: “This could be at any point in the full plastic life-cycle, from alternative feedstocks to waste management. Although we argue in our note that recycling is not the only solution needed, it is part of the solution for addressing plastic pollution.”

Wielechowski continued: “For instance, recycling should be for a known identifiable end-market use, rather than the collection of plastic waste which is then shipped to other regions where its fate is unknown/untraced and it may end up leaking into the environment.”