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We do not know what darkness lurks in the halls of the plastic industry PR machine, but we can guess based on their history and their current actions. Big lies are made up of many smaller everyday lies. In the fog of social media, partisan politics, and consumer culture, it is easy to miss the big ones in the outrage over the little ones. Propaganda Scenarios provide a tool for making educated guesses about the plastics industry big lie public relations strategies, and for designing counter-actions to their propaganda activities.
The promise of future technological miracles is a potent strategy for distracting the public, journalists, and policymakers away from plastic industry pollution. These promises are speculative at best, and in many cases are likely no more than cynical dis-information.
It is in the self-interest of the plastics industry to undermine the proposed Global Plastics Treaty.
Single-use plastic packaging proliferates because it is cheap and allows for standardization in the logistics chain. It is sold to the public as being necessary, safe, the economy, sustainable, … but because this is all a lie; because this is really about externalized costs and corporate profits; because the burden born by society is extremely high, they have to construct an elaborate edifice of lies. This includes recycling, advanced recycling, circular economy, sustainability. It includes coverups of health and environmental impacts associated with production. It also includes a move to shift responsibility for plastic waste from industry to society.
It is clearly the goal of the plastics industry to increase plastics production. A significant potential impediment to achieving that goal is a global plastics treaty which puts limits on production. In order to counter the Reduce in the three Rs, false emphasis is put on the other two Rs: Recycle and Reuse. Thus are born “Advanced Recycling” and “Circular Economy” -but a complete absence of plans for the reduction of production. The first two are false narratives plugged into the Three Rs. Reduction is what is required to address climate change, plastic waste, and chemical pollution. By repeating the false narratives and ignoring the impactful solution, the plastics industry intends to influence public perception and policy in a way that undermines attempts to solve the environmental issues in ways that are effective, but ultimately negatively impact their profits.