Philadelphia takes on companies over alleged deceptive plastic recycling claims

Multiple reports have used trackers to show that bags placed in drop-off containers rarely make it anywhere but the landfill.

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): When Philadelphia filed a lawsuit last month alleging two prominent companies were engaged in a “coordinated campaign of deception” regarding the recyclability of their plastic film products, the city joined a growing group of state and local governments hoping litigation can help stem a rising tide of plastic waste.

Public officials in New York, Minnesota, Connecticut, California, Baltimore and Los Angeles  have over the last three years lodged complaints against several companies that act as powerful links in the chain of plastic production, including ExxonMobil, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Walmart and Reynolds Consumer Products. 

The lawsuits are each distinct, but they all allege the defendants misled the public about the efficacy of recycling in order to continue profiting off the production and sale of plastic. California accused ExxonMobil of encouraging the excessive use of plastic, contributing to the state’s billion-dollar annual cost for plastic waste management. New York, meanwhile, alleged that PepsiCo’s single-use plastics pollute the Buffalo River, contaminating drinking water and harming wildlife.

Roughly 400 million tons of plastic are produced worldwide each year, according to the United Nations, and only about 10% gets recycled. Plastic pollution poses a threat to human and animal health as well as vital ecosystems, the UN states.

Philadelphia’s complaint, filed Sept. 24 against Bimbo Bakeries and SC Johnson, claims that the companies misled consumers by suggesting their plastic film products — bread bags and Ziploc, respectively — could be recycled. 

“They have capitalized on this confusion to take advantage of consumers, and we in Philadelphia want this to stop,” said Cherriel Gentles, a senior attorney for the city. “They cannot operate in this manner to continue to fleece consumers.”

Nationwide, the litigation has yet to find much success. A judge tossed out New York’s lawsuit for “seek[ing] to impose punishment while searching for a crime.” ExxonMobil has countersued California Attorney General Rob Bonta over his claim that “the company has propped up sham solutions.” And a judge dismissed key elements in Baltimore’s suit against PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and Frito-Lay because the city failed to demonstrate harm to consumers or itself. 

Still, environmental advocates and legal experts have high hopes for Philadelphia’s lawsuit and said it may offer a blueprint for how municipalities and states can directly link plastic producers to the harms caused by plastic waste and pollution.

The complaint takes aim at Bimbo and SC Johnson’s marketing for steering consumers toward designated drop-off boxes found at various retailers where their plastic film products could purportedly be recycled. But those boxes are nothing more than “trash cans in disguise,” the complaint alleges, citing a range of recent reporting that has revealed such plastics rarely get recycled.  

It also describes how that alleged deception stymies the city’s effort to recycle legitimate materials like paper, cardboard and aluminum. Because consumers have been led to believe plastic film is recyclable, the complaint says, they place it in the city’s curbside bins, leaving recycling professionals with “a daunting and expensive task.” 

First, they must tangle with plastic film that jams machinery, raising operating costs and endangering workers. Second, they must mitigate the contamination caused by plastic film — the primary contaminant in the recycling system, in part because of its use for food storage — to have any hope the city’s materials can be sold and recycled. 

By detailing the direct impact of the companies’ alleged deception on the municipal recycling system, the lawsuit aims to accomplish something its predecessors have struggled to manage, according to Jan Dell, the founder of The Last Beach Cleanup, a nonprofit focused on ending plastic pollution. It clarifies the harm to both residents and the city in a way that has often seemed more nebulous in other settings, Dell said.

“I hope this is a model,” she said. 

Philadelphia’s lawsuit “sews together what’s been happening over the past five years,” Dell said, by confronting what she calls “the store drop-off myth.” Multiple reports have used trackers to show that bags placed in drop-off containers rarely make it anywhere but the landfill. 

 Courtesy: www.thenewlede.org