>> narrator: coming to frontline in april... >> health experts say we are not even close to seeing the worst of this yet... >> narrator: a special report on the coronavirus pandemic.no right- "plastic wars". >> in this state, none of this is recyclable. >> narrator: have efforts to solve the plastics problem made it worse? >> do you think e industry usedecycling to sell more plastic? >> narrator: frontline and npr investigate. >> for the oil and gas industr plastic is their lifeline. this is the big war. >> narrator: now, "plastic wars". >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

and by the corration for public broadcasting. major support is provided by thn john d. and catht. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org. f the fondation: working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. at fordfoundation.org. additional support is provided by the abrams foundation,co itted to excellence in journalism. the park foundation,gh dedicated to hning public awareness of critical issues. the john and helenlessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. and by the frontle urnalism fund, withajor support from jon an jo ann hagler. and additional support from the millicent and eugene bell foundation. (water burbling) >> laura sullivan: in 2015, a

marine biologist came across a sea turtle in distress. i don't want to pull it too hard. >> yeah, i mean, it's bleeding already. oh, poor baby. i'm sorry. (bleep) (bleep) christ. that is plastico. oh, man. >> that's plastic. >> don't tell me it's a freaking straw. i >>t's just freaking... va >> sullin: her video of the encounter quickly went viral. >> this poor sea turtle. tr>> sullivan: it would atact more than 35 million views. action.ecame a rallying cry for >> sullivan: and focused public attention on a growing problem. >> that turtle video certainly did have an impact. >> plastic pollution: a planetary crisis. >> sullivan: plaics in the decades.ave been building up for >> in an underwater paradise, a plastic nightmare. s sullivan: recurring ima dead whales... >> 80 plastic bags found inside the whale. >> sullivan: bloated seabirds... >> oh. >> sullivan: ...and littered waterways have fueled a global anti-plastic movement.

>> enemy number one-- the plastic straw. >> many u.s. citieare taking steps to ban plastic grocery bags... >> save our earth before it's too late! >> sullivan: and yet, despite the backlash, the industry that makes plastic isxpanding. >> the start of construction on that multibillion-dollar plastics plant... >> sullivan: plentiful supplies of natural gas are driving down the cost of making plastic. the u.s. is now one of the world's largest plastic proders. >> it's going to be the largest plant of its kind in the world. >> sullivan: and industry is investing tens of billions of dollars in new plastic plants. >> construction will eventually employ 6,000 people. >> sullivan: by 2050, it's estimated that global production of plastic will triple. >> a plastic boom. >> there's going to more plastic than ever on the face. >> sullivan: i wanted tome understand how we o this moment, how the plastic industry has been able to thrive all thesyears in the face of a growing crisis, and opsition that's now stronger than it's

ever been. ♪ ♪ for decades, the natnal response to the growing plastic-waste problem has focuseon one solution: recycling. and few places have pursued recycling more aggressively than oregon. what we put in our recycling bins ends up in sorting plants like this one, outside of portland. >> we're actually very full right w. >> sullivan: this is, this is all coming in fresh. this is the first unload, right? >> yeah. when it comes in. looks like >> sullivan: vinod singh is the outreach manag at far west recycling. >> slivan: every single piece of this has to be sorted in some way...

>> yeah, you havto separate paper and then the metals and then the plastics. >> sullivan: there are a lot of different kinds of plastics that have to be sorted. >> and what we're doing here is we'rrting it out into the milk jugs, the naturaldpe, theen pigmd hdpe, p.e.t. water bottles...va >> sulli they're looking for plastics. >> yeah-- so all the plastic will come off before the line ends.li >> suln: some items, like soda bottles and milk jugs, e easier to recycle, so there's money to be made. >> so, this is all plastic that has a home. >> sullivan: but most other pes of plastic are techniclyn difficult and oftecostly to recycle. and that makes them nearlyo impossiblesell. so they keep piling up. this is plastic that haso home. >> this is plastic that has home, so it's your clamshells, ziploc bags, film, a cd, a food, like, a food wrapper. >> sullivan: ithe business

they're called mixed plastics. >> now, you're getting more mixed plastics, like pouches, and everything comes in a, in a clamshelnow. >> sullivan: so, if somebody throws their te bottle into their bin, that's a win. >> yeah. >> sullivan: but what you're saying is you're seeing more and more othis stuff. >> packaging is evolving. >> sullivan: most mixed plasticp enn a place like this. >> what you're seeing happening right now is, that's a full-size, that's a, probably a 53-foot trailer. >> sullivan: in medford, oregon, rogue disposal's landfill takes about a hundred loads of tra a day. and more and more of it is plastic. >> plastic films, plastic bags, the plastic wrapping that comes around a lot of packaged goods-- that all goes into the garbage. it's margarine tubs, clamshells, the deli containers. until there is a viable optione for recycling things, we should be putting it ia landfill. b >> sulliva that's not what

we've been told for decades, as the things we buy have been increasingly packaged in astic. are you david? i'm laura sullivan. >> very nice to meet you. >> slivan: nice to meet you, too. >> welcome to portland. >> sullivan: david allaway is a senior policy analyst with the egon department of environmental quality. so much of all this stuff in the grocery store is plast now. >> it's rely inexpensive. >> sullivan: it's an easy way to package it. >> it is, and it performs, it performs very well. it has really good engineering qualities, it protects food very well. >> sullivan: this is my basic question, because it seems like everybody is buying lette in a box now. is this recyclable? >> in this state, none of this is, none of thiss recyclable. >> sullivan: okay, what about all these? this is everywhere in every surmarket. >> in oregon, again, there are no curbside programs that would accept any of these tubs. >> sullivan: okay, so, this is classic, when, a lot of americans dohis, like what you're doing right now. >> yep, that's right s livan: they flip it over. what are we looking at? >> at the bottom of all these plastic containers is this

little chasing arrow, the little recycling symbol, with a number. and e number, there's somet words, isays, "1 p.e.t.e." this package here is technically recyclable. you could recycle this in a lab. >> sullivan: oka b it's not economical to recycle it, given the current economics of recycli. >> sullivan: but if it's not happening in oregon, it makes me wonder what's goinon in the rest of the country. >> yeah, i would, i would say that this package is rarely recycled in most parts in the country. >> sullivan: yeah. >> can i give you another example here? >> sulliva >> so, let's take a 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."er is no program in oregon that wants this in the curbside. but more than half of all people that live in the portland areae believthis belongs in the curbside container. >> sullivan : well, it says it's recyclable.ys >> it t's recyclable. it has the recycling logo.

it's very confusing to a lot of people. >> sullivan: this confusion eabout what can and can't recycled, and where plastic ultimately ends up, is no accident. over the past year, we've been vestigating the plastic crisis and found that many of the problems we face today were t in motion decades ago by the very companies who make plastic in the first place. ♪ one of those companies is dupont, and on the grounds of the first dupont family home, ia found gley library. ld movie score playing) it holds one of the world's largescollections of industrial history. >> this is an american city, aty real commuf homes and homemakers like thousands of others across the nation. we call it plasticstown, u.s.a. >> sullivan: i'd come to see what its archive could tell me about the evolution of the >> the table is set with

polyethylene products, too. >> sullivan: america's postwar boom preseed endlessis opportunities for ew durable, lightweight material. >> modern-day miraes that were made with the help of peochemicals. >> sullivan: from packaging to clothing to home furnishings... >> very durable. >> sullivan: plastic's wide-ranging applications... >> glassine, pyethylene, mylar... >> sullivan: ...promised a new world through chemistry. >> step into the world of manmade materials that take up where nature left off. >> the thing that made them unique was the ability to do l more with justtle bit of material, to make things that we usedighter and more efficien so, plastic came to be used in many applications because it performed better. >> that was not a trick. >> it did a good job of doing what it was asked to do. it made life more efficient and easier. >> (chanting save our earth! >> sullivan: but by 1970, the confront the turbulent times of

america's environmental awakening. >> one in every ten americans took part in rallies... >> sullivan: earth day was o of the largest mass protests in u.s. history. >> oh, earth day was profound in terms of people waking up to the fact that we live on a finite planet. d there was a lot of concern about the trend that was happening towards the more throway, disposable lifestyle. (dramatic music playing) >> sullivan: in respse, many compies, including plastic makers, and even some environmenlists, got behind an iconic ad campaign that focused' attention on the pubrole. >> and i remember being a kid and watching those ads, theon most famous with the crying inan. >> some people have a deep, abiding respect for the natural beauty that was once this country. >> he was actually italian, dressed up like an indian, but the fake crying indi, the most famous one, ends with this very dramatic sentence where they say...t >> people stllution.

people can stop it. >> people all around the country bought that line and thought it was our responsibility to take americans discard 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 root cause...li >> what makes our ves convenient is burying us. >> sullivan: the unchecked growth in household waste. ba>> a barge filled with g is causing quite an international stink. >> loaded with more than 3,000 tons of waste from new york's long island... >> sullin: by 1987, a wandering barge called the mobro became an emblem of the growingr is. >> greenpeace went and climbed aboard it and took a huge banner that we put on it. we said, "next time, try recycling." it really became a metaphor of, "we are bumping up against limits her we cannot keep just continuing this mindless consumerism, mindless consumption, and dump

it somewhere else."rb >> american has a e problem too long ignored... >> sullivan: at hagley, we found stcollection of internal p industry documents... thk you. (voiceover): ...about this period of time, when the industry was in the crosshrs of the environmental movement, and plastics we under attack. as wcontinued reporting,e found even more internal documents and court filings, and spoke with over a dozen industry insiders, including three top executives who represented the big plastic producers and agreed to talk publicly for the first time. back then, one of the vice y presidents at the societof the plastics industry was lew freeman. he now heads a local environmental coalition, but he remembers a pivotal board meeting in the late '80s, when the industry was worried about its publicmage. >> the ve president of the dupont company pulled me asidean said, "you, you guys better get up to wilmington. there's dissatisfactn about what's going on with the solid-waste issue."

we took a trek up to wilmington, and this one dupont executive, he sd, "i thk if we had five million dollars"-- which seemed like a lot of money then. >> sullivan: five million? >> " we had five millionar do we could, we could, we could solve this problem." >> sullivan: they created the lutions, drawn from their ranks of bigil and petrochemical companies that made plastic, like amoco,ex chevron, dow, ann. the group had a plan and turned to a veteran of the industry, ron liesemer, to execute it. >> they wanted to know, was ied interen being the guy who actually made recycling happen across the.s.? >> sullivan: i mean, you got handed this task... >> yeah. r >> sullivan: ...ycle plastic in the united states. >> in the united states. literally me.. i had no sta but i had millions of dollars to do what i felt wasecessary. >> in a highly controversial action, one county in new yorks state ted to ban all packaging made of two kinds of plastic. >> sullivan: it was a critical moment.

growing backlash was threatening the future of plastic. >> in what may be part of and national tthe city council of saint paul, minnesota, voted to outlaw the use of polystyrens cs. >> sullivan: liesemer was sent to minnesota on an urgent mission. plastic were facing banat used their products. >> there was an attitude that if your product was not rycled, then it should not be in the marketplace.p so, it was us in the plastics industry solve this problem so that they could continue to package their oducts in plastic. >> sullivan: and liesemer found a solution. to appease government officis, the industry funded a local recycling pilot project. >> the industry attitude was, "we'll set this up and get it going, but if the public wants it, they are going to have to pay for ." >> sullivan: the plastic bans were averted. do you think that they took a lesson away from how to fight

the ba? >> oh, yes. it was, "we need to be doing things." l >> sullivae what? >> don't wait until legislation appears.e >> sullivan: you'rying >> 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 i the marketplace. ll plastic.: it was a way to >> yes. it's a win-win situation. you get recycling going, that has its benefits, and it improves the image of the material. >> sullivan: the industry found another way to promote plastic using recycling. responding to pressure from states and environmentalists to better identify thny types of plastic, it created a code t. tell them ap that code was a numbering system put inside the well-knn symbol for recycling, the chasing

arrows. the problem, recyclers 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 '90s. all right, thereou are. >> during that time, the plastics industry, they went around to states, and theye convinced thates to pass laws, and they did this very quiey. they passed laws that required that symbol with the nber on it be put on plastic containers sold in that state. i mean, for most states, they did it in, recyclers dn't even know it happened. and the next thing you know, all the plastic containers he these symbols on them. >> sullivan: is this a good thing or a bad thing? >> it's a bad thing. >> sullivan: why? >> because the average person saw the symbol, they know the symbol, and said, "well, it's recyclable, righ" >> sullivan: "it's got three arrows." >> well, like, all of a sudden, our own customers, they wouldan bring it in d not only say it has the triangle, but it would,u they would flasay, "it

says it's recyclable right on it." and i'd be, like, "i can tell you i can't give this away. there's no one that would even take it if i paid for them to take it." that's how unrecyclable it was. >> sullivan: stuckith plastics they couldn't sell, smith and other recyclers met with representatives from the plastic industry. do you see the one... >> yeah, there's my name, right there. c >> sullivan:ame up with report identifying key problems with the numbering code. >> some firms e using it as a green marketing tool. "the code is being misused." >> sullivan: the plastic industryhat you were working with agreed to these and signed onto this report. >> they did. >> sullivan: so they knew thatth e problems existed. >> they knew these problems existed, absolutely. astic makers couldn't agree onpl how to cnge the code. industry would only switch to a triangle, which recyclers said was too similar to the chasing arrows. industry wouldn't en consider, say, no triangle, or a circle, or, i mean... >> they didn't want to gono anywhere neariangle. 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 asla more rece and more environmental makes their product look bette theyant to sell more plastic coainers.li >> svan: recyclers also appealed to government industry.s, but they sided with they sd that the chasing arrows symbol was okay, as long as it was small and on the bottom of packaging. what if it's got a chasing arrow sign on it, and you think that means it's getting recled? >> uh, that, that was one of the comments early, that it impliedt thse products were being recycled. >> sullivan: were they? were they misleading the public? >> ion't think so, because when i looked at them, at the arrows, i thought, "this is a way to identify the products so that recycling, the early stages of recycling can take place." >> sullivan: but even as

liesemer and his colleagues were publicly promoting recycling, privately, the industry had long expressed doubt it was everon going to happen a broad scale. one internal document from the society of thelastics industry cautioned, "the techniques of cleaning and separating the mixed plastics... has not beenlo defor large-scale economic application." another said"there are no effective marketechanisms for mixed plastic." d this document was candid: "there is serious doubt" widespread plasticecycling "can ever be made viable on an econic 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 many hurdles? >> some were very skeptical t felt they had to do it. i think others were, were more hopeful.th e was never an enthusiasti belief that recycling was

ultimately going to workn a significant way. >> sullivan: freeman's boss at the time, larry thomas, the head of theociety of the plastics industry, was blunt about it. >> i was the front man for the astics industry. no getting around it. >> sullin: thos wouldn't sit down for an on-camera interview, but agreed to talk on the phone >> if blic thinks the recycling is working, theney e not going to be as concerned about the environment. think they knew that the infrastructure wasn't there to really have recycling amount to a whole lot. >> sullivan: thomas wrote a confidential memo in 1989 out the precious position the industry was in. "the image of plasti among consumers is deteriorating at an alarmingly fast pace," it says. "we're approaching apoint of no return.' business is being lost. analysts are beginning to take notice. we must immediately undertake a

major program of unprecedented proportions to reverse this fast-moving tidal wave of growing negative public perception." so the big plaic producers came up with a-d multimillilar solution... >> when you look at plastic... >> sullivan: advertising. >> ...helps things stay fresh and safe and light.f >> it spent mosts money, millions and millions of dollars, on advertising... >> plastic also saves energy. >> to tout the virtues ofcs plass a way of heading off the criticism the industry was experiencing. >> when we started that advertising program, i think the image of plasticwas in t mid-30s-- you know, 30, 35% favorability. >> sullivan: that's pretty low. >> if you're in politics, you'ru in deep e with a 35% rating. >> presenting the possibilitie of plastics. >> when they were running the advertising on television, they were not about how plastics can be recycled, but all the

wonderful things that plastics bring to us. >> plastics make it possible. >> the fact that you now don't have to worry about dropping a shampoo ttle that was made out of glass on the bathroom floor because it's plastic.g and there's nothinong in an dustry promoting those kind of addressing the problem people are criticizing you about. >> sullivan: and it worked?nd >>t worked. >> sulliva (chuckles) 'cause y went from 30% favorability... >> from, let's say mid-30s to mid-60s.n: >> sulliavorability. >> mm-hmm. (commercial music playing) >> glass? that's the past. thermaset is the future. >> sullivan: over the next several decades... w >> what once was glal soon be plastic. >> sullivan: plastic became the unrivaled material of choi for consumers. >> busy lifestyles and a growing urban populaon mean an increase in demandor food that is fresh... >> sullivan: plastic sales exploded >> convenient...ul >>van: from 1990 to 2010, production more than doubled. >> and fast. flexible pacging has bece part of our daily lives.

>> sullivan: and with all that new plastic me mountains of here we are at our gdb south brunswick facility.li >> sn: south, okay. 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: sunil bagaria is naonal chairman of the , plastics division for ise institutfor scrap recycling industries. his company buys throwaway plastic from some of theor largesbig-box in the u.s. oh, my god, what is this? >> this is just hangers, one typef plastic. >> sullivan (gasps): why are these all here? >> well, you would imagine that when you, you know, you take a garment off the rack and take ito the checkout counter.. >> sullivan: yes. >> then this should go back. >> sullivan: that they wou just reuse it. >> yeah, but they said, "oh, you know what, we'll just buy new hangers. in the meantime, let me just recycle this."

>> sullivan: o boy. hanger gets used one time. >> one time. >> sullivan: starting in the late '90s, bagaria and other recycling brokers had a one-word answer to the growing plastic-waste problem: china. >> i mean, china did a big one for the recycling industry, i must say. >> sullivan: yeah. >> you know, because, as long as it remotely resembled plastic, sullivan: they would take it. >> yeah-- polystyrene, p.e.t.,le pvc, polypro. because that's how big a demand of manufacturing was there in china.w they wanted terial. "give me raw material," that's all they wanted. >> sullivan: how long did th go on for? >> almost 20 years. but later,e surely realized that the was always another aspect of whatasoing on in china. >> sullivan: which was what? >> they would just take, like, the w-hanging 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 ofhat was happening in china became clear. >> these chinese children spend most of their waking hourstw n plumes of smoke and mountains of plastic. >> sullivan: and in 2018, china stopped taking impted plastic waste. >> now the country is trying to clean up its image. >> because we thought that it the freedom-- "okay, no problem, let's, let me continue to use it. it is ultimately getting recycled. what is the, what is the problem?" n er 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,an bagariother brokers 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 sells his plastic to. >> this is his factory. >> sullivan: this is your factory. >> sullivan: bagaria he to make sure his plastic was actually being recycled and turned into tiny pellets thatew are used to makelastic products. >> this is your pellets.li >> suln: ah, there they are. >> this is the holding tank.n: >> sullivaot pellets. how much responsibility do you feel like you have over what's happening here? >> oh, we, we are the shipper of the scrap. it all originates with us. we could ship scrap and hope that it is being recycled in the way it should be.s, or the other way i come here, see how serious he is about doing it the right way. ♪ >> sullivan: but there are growing concerns herthat a lot of plastic waste is not being handled the right way, and indonesian officials are trying to prevent what haened in china from happening here. is this one of the big

priorities here? >> yeah.l (speaking longuage) >> sullivan: so, contaminated plastic trash is abig a problem for you guys asug narcotics and coming into the country? >> yeah, yeah,eah. >> sullivan: wow.nd last year, customs fhat half the containers of plastic waste they inspected... >> sir, sir, can you explain little bit? >> sullivan: ...were contaminated with trash and plastic that can't be recycled. ♪ we wanted to see for ourselves what was happening to the plastic coming here. oh, it's here, right there? >> yeah. >> sullivan: that opening? onrecycling company here caught our attention... yeah, pt new harvestindo. (voiceover): based on indonesian customs documents we'd obtained. 191 containers being held right now.ju let's go knock and see if maybe someone will talk to us. (voiceover): with the help of an indonesian journalist, we tried to speak to someone at new

harvestindo. but we were ld there was no one available. >> we need to confirm... (speaking local language) is the data that we have is correct or not? >> sullivan: can we come in and look? (journalist speaking local language) (guard responds) >> sullivan: looks like a lot of shipping containers. >> yeah. >> sullivan: i think we're 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 tus, we still wanted to know what they were plastic waste and whether itf was all being recycled. we'd heard about an environmental acvist who's been tracking what happens to the plastic coming into indonesia. hi. i met up with yuyun ismawati in a small rural community nearby. thislace, it's huge.

>> yeah.'s ituge and very wide.t you can see from tharner to the end of that valley over there. >> sullivan: what's it like to a loa field this size and see it covered in plastic trashi an show you the pictures. >> sullivan: oh, really, you took pictures? >> yes. >> sullivan: yeah, i'd love to see that, yeah.oo wea seat by the side of the road, and she showed mepi ctures she'd collected of plastic that locals said had been dumped here. >> the sacks are from a astic company. ked them, where did they get this from? and then they said it's from harvest, they call it. >> sullivan: harvest. (voiceover): waste pickers woult look for ps of value, and the rest would be burned.hi >> so,is how it looked like when they burn it. >> sullivan: so it's like a big, sort of a big fire on this pit. >> yeah, yeah. people with respiratory problem, th really get affected. and some children got

hospitalized. (horn honks) sullivan: after the community complained to the government about the burning, the dumping stopped here. i mean, w, how big a problem do you think these kinds of dumping grounds are in indonesia? >> big. they are everywhere around this area.re the recycling system that we have at the moment is not really recycling, because some part of it exported, being exported all over the rld, to be "recycled." >> sullivan: yeah. it's really recycled, beinger recycled overseas or not. there is no proof. >> sullivan: we reached out to the two recling companies known locally as harvest. new harvestindo still wouldn't respond to us, and the other compy denied it was behind t dumping. but later that night, on a back street, i met up with a new harvestindo worker who agreed to talk to me about what the company do with its pltic waste. hi. >> hi...

>> sullivan: thank you so much for coming to meet me. (voiceover): as long as weid didn't disclose hitity. 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 you're not going to do anything with? >> (speaking local language): >> sullivan: what do you do with the rest of it? >> sullivan: how long has that been going on for? ♪ >> sulliva he told me he could take me to a place where the company had recently been dumping plasc. after a 30-minute drive, we reached a quiet neighborhood with an area hidden from the road. 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 om california. this is a pile of u.s. recycling. oiceover): new harvestin eventually got back to us and denied it was responsible forma doing anything that d the environment. it sd in an email that it hadiv a comprehesystem to handle plastic waste,nd it follows all indonesian laws and regulations. the company has not been charged with any wrongdoing related to dumping. >> in last 20 years,e've seen more environmental degradations and environmental problems in indonesia because we are struggling to, to clean up thern modern debris and moitter in indonesia. the additional burden of waste i

from overseaon't know how we are going to handle it.sa >> sullivan: you'rng you've got plenty as it is. >> yes, because we, we are struggling to handle our own waste. >> sullivan: a lot of that wastn is eup in the ocean. 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. and the consumption and lifestyle that you have, i think it's, you have to rethink, because have to reduce the o amouplastics that we, that we produce at the moment. >> save our earth before it's too late! >> sullivan: that message is reinvigorating a backlash against plastic, the likes of which the industry hasn't seen for decades. >> i can talk loud.ng >> sullivan: it's fa opposition to the construction

of new plants. >> everybody up here said theyt dont the plant. there shouldn't be any more talk about it. >> as ofoday, plastic bags are banned in jersey city. >> sullivan: and plastic bans are spreadg across the country. >> this is our moment, california. let's get these bills passed. let's do right by our future. n: >> sulli major showdown is shaping up in california. the legislature wants to impose new fees on plastic makers and restrict single-use astics. >> this is a big moment. >> sullivan: this is big moment. >> yeah, so, if the california market changes, we know it's p going to putressure on kind of, the kind of products tha are out there. ♪ >> sullivan: amid the backlash, i headed to the texas gulf coast, where oil and gasde companies are unpressure from climate change and increasingly turning tow plastics, notheir biggestgr th market. we reached out to more than a the only one that would sit down with us was chevron phillips. jim becker is the vice president of sustainability.

you've seen california, the legislation... >> yeah, yeah. >> sullivan: some bans across the country, and a lot of targets on single-use plastic. >> uh-huh, 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. >> sullivan: right >> so, we don't think banning these products is necessarilygo the, the right way t >> sullivan: what does chevron phillips want to see happen? c.c. goals-- americanly, the chemistry council. >> sullivan: yeah. >> goals of getting plasti waste out of landfills by, i0. think, the date is 2 >> sullivan: chevron phillips would li to see all of that plastic recycled back to make new plastic things >> yeah. >> sullivan: how, how do you get o a place where 100% of this plastic getting recycled?

how do you get there? >> much more education needs to happen... y >> sullivah. >> ...on how to recycle. you also have to really build up the infrastructure for collection.e we're going to h invest in innovation, becae some of these technologies still need tv be furtheroped. >> sullivan: if the oil industry is able to get 100% of, of the material recycled... >> yeah. >> sullivan: doesn't that affect the bottom line? >> yes, it would, iter would, but the ative is, having plastic waste in the environment. we don't want that.ou >> sullivan:hink that the company feels so strongly that it is willing to make less money? >> i think that's true. an investment in managinge as ♪ astic waste. >> sullivan: once again, the industry is pushing recying. today, its main lobbying group is the american chemistry council, and until recently, ite resident of plastics was steve russell. you fundamtally think that in

the united states, recycling could ramp up a capacity to handle the vast majority of plastic that being produced? >> so, i understand that there's a lot of skepticism around that, because the systems today have not kept pace. our system is woully inadequate, and it needs dramatic investment. it needs improvement. but the proof here is the dramatic amount of investment that's happening right now. our member cpanies, sabic and shell and lyondellbasell, all of whom have made major announcements in traditional and advanced recycling to ben to intervene in that space in order to bring their scale, their technical know-how, and their capacity to start providingpr ucts that are based on waste... >> sullivan: but you're talking about a couple of companies. there's also an entire industry that's goingiple production by 2050. >> mm-hmm. t >> sullivan: how ase two things going to meet anywhere in the middle? >> it's not going to happen thin month or by thof the year, but we're moving now. old types of recycling nd to

be modernized, and new types of recycling need to be brought on board. the good news is they're coming. ♪ >> sullivan: back in oregon, found one of these new technologies. in south portland, the plastic industry was showcasing a demonstration oject. >> has everybodyot their gear? stopped by, local lawmakers had been invited in to hear about the benefits of new sorting machine that industry says will make recycling plastic more onomical. >> if you want to step up, up above, you can see the machine in action. >> sulvan: one of the sponsors was the american chemistry council. >> the idea be that particular facility is if, if we recyclables move down thet conveyor belt, right, so they get separated, we're going tocr te better, cleaner streams of like materials. when we do that, we end up with bales that are more easy to sell and that are more easy for consumer-goods companies to

incorporate into their packaging. >> sullivan: but as we continued our reporting in oregon, w heard about a surprisingly similar effort that took placen more t years ago, at a recycling company 50 miles away called garten services. >> we're going into the office. i've got a couplof newspaper articles i want to show you from the past. >> sullivan: the plastic industry had broht a demonstration project here in 1994. >> the garten foundation of salem unveiled a new sorting machine that may change the way we recycle forever. >> this million-dollar plastic sorting system in salem is thets first ofind in the world. >> so here, we've collected some old newspaper articles from 1994. s livan: will posegate is the chief operating officer of garten. >> i mean,t says, "sorts out the problem." >> sullivan: a sorting... >> a sorting machine, that's right. >> sullivan: you got this from... >> from the plastics council. >> sullivan: the plastics...or >> they wanted us to plastics, when people thought plastics might be starting to be a problem. >> tod, the american plastics

council unveiled the machine. >> they say residents will put all their plastic containe in one bag. >> it just keeps getting better, doesn't it? >> sullivan: what, what happened to it? >> years later, we, , we shut it down, because there was no way make money at it. and we sold that $1.5 million machine for scrap. >> sullivan: you sold the machine for scra >> for scrap, that's right. it didn't make any sense. and i'm afraid that that same thing is happening right now. this is the plastic that nobody wants. the whole idea about, "oh, justr sort better, it'll bt. let's make more single-use plastics"-- don't buy into that. not a good idea for the environment, not a good idea for the earth, not a gd idea for your wallet. >> sullivan: you can't sort your way out of this. >> no, no, period. >> sullivan: it all made me wonder whether the plastic ideas.ry is just recycling old >> they said i couldn't dream. called me a piece of trash and swore that's all i'd ever be.

>> sullivan: like in the '90s, money on ads...s been spending >> and now i'm what i've always wanted to be. >> sullivan: ...encouraging consumers to recyc. >> remember, a lot of the plastic packaging that you have in your kitchen is recyclable. >> smoke jumping is the pinnacle of wildland firefighting. >> sullivan: and tting the virtues of plastic. >> we're covered in plastic-based gear fm head to toe. (commercial music playing) (commercial music playing) >> this is the world we see. >> let's be the ones... >> that came together to change the world. t>> sullivan: what do youhink? >> déjà vu all over again. >> sullivan: why do you say that? tell me about that. >> this is the same kind of

thinking that ran in the, in the '90s. >> sullivan: what doou think the messaging is here? >> it's showing the people picking up the litter. that kind of impli that that's where the responsibility lay. i think the chemical industry, anthe plastics industry specifically, need to take very seriously this reaction that's going on. i don't think this kind of advertising is, is helpful to them at all. >> lately, there's been a lot of talk about how plastics impact our lives, for better or worse. >> sullivan: the reality is, for all the ads and promises over the years, it's estimated that no more than ten percent of plastic has ever been recycl. and the guy industry tapped decades ago to get recycling going isn't surprised. i showed ron liesemer industry reports we found dating as far a backthe 1970s. and this one talks about thela cost of separating pstics fromas other tr there're various types of plastics, and that the

cost of new plastic is so low that sorting and reprocessingst used p can't be justified 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: it's 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 they knew it was not economically viable. the crisis passed. now here we are again in a crisis. plastics are once again on the, the low end of the public's opinion, and now the industry is telling the public again to recycle. >> the industry is not telling

the public just to recycle. we've got to fix the recycling system, clearly, that's, that's e. but more importantly, we have to look at reuse models, using less where we can, developing new materials-- which is the plaic makers' responsibility-- that can be better recycled, and also really impornt that we deploy the technologies that are now available to us at scale. >> sullin: so you don't think this is just an industry coming up with a way to get out of a crisis. >> no, no, this is about all ofg us understanhat we each have a role to play in, in making the system that we have better and achieving the goals that i think everybody would have to say, "we cannocontinue with business as usual. it's time for change, and this is that time." >> sullivan: hmm. >> let's put these away. anlet me show you another recycling label. >> sullivan: back in oregon, i put the question to david allaway.t the question tpeople are going to have is, what are they supposed to do to make this

better? >> the common refrain in thisha whole fielisit's all upsu to conrs. and that's the way recycling has been sold, as well, okay? and, "you just need to sort out your recyclables and do your part.rt do your save the earth, recycle." and when icomes to understanding and reducing the environmental impacts ofac materials, includingkaging, consumers have the lowest amount of leverage. the big leverage is with the producers. producers should disclose the environmental impas of their materials publicly. and by impacts, i don't meanor whetheot it can be recycled. i mean, what is the carbon 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 thisharoduct >> that's right. here's this flexible bag, and it's a, it's a plastic-metalmi te... >> sullivan: allaway is a leading authority on the

environmental impacts of p materials listic. so you're saying consumers stand here and think, hat can i recycle?" but the question really is, "ho? do i red >> reduce the impact. the producers know what the environmental impacts of these different formats are, but they don't 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 oa recyclin never move the conversation on to the biggere issues, which are ll environmental impacts of all th stuff. >> sullivan: but it isn't just industry that's ke consumers focused on recycling for so long. environmentalists ve, too. looking back, do you think putting the banner on the mobro was a mistake? >> you know, i have looked at th picture and pondered th for decades. i think we were naive. i think we were overly optimistic about the potential

of recycng. and perpetuating that narrative led us astray. i mean, absolutely, sociy- wide, we bought this myth that recycling will solve the problem and we don'teed to worry about the amount of plastic being produced. >> sullivan: in washington last november, during america recles week... >> welcome to e.p.a.'s 2019 amica recycles innovation fair. >> sullivan: e.p.a. administrator andrew wheeler was talking up the futurof recycling. >> in many ways, we're just getting started. we need to increase the interest in and demand for recycled materials and more products madr frycled materials. their latest ideas.ies came with >> it's 100% recycled content. s >> sullivae, like keurig, saw a need for better technology. hi, i'm laura sullivan, npr d pbs "frontline." what's happening with k-cups? >> k-cups are going recyclable. >> sullivan: i mean, you gotof a, a couplurdles, in the sense that you're going to have

to have people sorting out tiny cups, right? >> ideally, mechanical sorting. >> sullivan: h many k-cups do you sell? >> about 11 billion. >> sullivan: 11 billion, a year? >> a year.n: >> sullio, the idea would be mechanical sorters pick out 11 billion k-cups, right? >> ideally, we want all of them back. >> sullivan: others, like colgatpalmolive, saw a need for better education. >> so, we're here today to showcase our first-of-its-kind recyclable tube. >> sullivan: so, if, if you put this in your curbside tonight, do you think that this tube would be recycled? >> we need more work. we're working with other organizations to get the word out.va >> sulli so, not yet? >> not yet, not yet. >> sullivan: i notice that you guys puthe big chasing aows. >> correct. >> sullivan: do you think that because 's not quite recyclable yet, that that might be a little misleading?t >> we doink thate're being misleading because technically it is recyclable. >> sullivan: as i made my way through the innovation fair...

>> we are keep america beautiful, we're a non-for-profit. >> sullivan: you guys have beend arouor a long time. >> we've been around for over 65 years. >> sullivan: the mood wasic optimi less than ten percent of plastic has actually ever been recycled whatu think? >> well, that is a, it's a challenge, and i think what's goods that we're all working together to help improve some of those recycling habits and understanding behavior. >> sullivan: do you think that america can recycle its way out >> i believe with the proper infrtructure and the proper education, and we all work together, as aollective, we cahe >> t world is flooded with plastigarbage. >> 18 billion pounds of plastic waste end up in the ocean ever year. >> the equivalent of a garbage truck dumped every minute. >> sullivan: how does is conflict compare to what you saw haen in the '80s and '90s, when this sort of last came up with this kind of fervor? >> well, one thing that's different is, the, the actual ecological context is different, that we're really bumping up agait ecological limits.

like, we can't delay this for oanother ten, 20, 30 year we're going to... >> sullivan: so, this is it. >> this, this is it.fo the oil and gas industry, the stakes are higher, too, because single-use plastic is their plan b. they're not going to be able to continue drill that oil and gas and burn it for energy anymore, because the climate cat sustain it. so this is their lifeline. they are going to double down on hsingle-use plastic like e never seen. so we're heading towards a real battle. th is it. this is, this is the big war. >> the u.n. estimates, by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. >> plast in your food. >> microplastics are invading our water supply. >> sullivan: how big a moment is this? >> i think it's a transitional moment. i think it is a big moment. >> sullivan: biggest you've seen, in your career? >> it'the biggest i've seen. this is the first time you've ever seen companiefrom across the whe supply chain all coming together to, to say, "we

need to fix this." so you can talk about this stuff a lot. we have to show hard results. we have to start showing success. and we know that ♪ >> sullivan: 40 years on, despe a plastic crisis that' been getting worse, the industry's future seems bright. demand for low-cost plastic continues to grow. and the producon of new plastic is rapidly expanding. ♪ significantly reduce our useeed of materials overall, and yet for the most part, the policykers are still focused with laser-like intensity on recycling. there's nothing wrong with promoting recycling, except when recycling sucks all the oxygen r t of the room, and we ne anything else. 4 for the layears, the conversation in this country has

been about the recycle part of "reduce, reuse, recycle." >> sullivan: that wasn't an accident. >> no, it was not an accident.. it was creat it was manufactured. ♪ >> go to pbs.org/frontline for more on what consumers need to know about recycling. >> the little recyclingnu symbol with er. >> and follow our latest reporting on the coronavirus. including a new series of our podcast, "the frontline dispatch". >> ...if you could look at italy. what is the advice you're hearing from the doctors to those of us living in america? >> they're saying get ready eacause this is very, very >> connect with the frontline community on facebook and twitter, and watch anyme 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: >>arrator: frontline es undercover to trace the missing... >> can i trust you?

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- [narrator] this video went viral, but it's not uniquehi incidents likecan be found in every corner of america, from major cities to small towns. punitive discipline creates a disproportionate criminalization of black girls, and disrupts one of the most important factors in their lives, education. - i would like for schools to become locations for healing so they can become locations for learning. - [announcer] pushout: the criminalization of black girls in schools is made possibleov by thefoundation, the ford foundation just films, and e meadow fund. additional support by the following: (relaxed music)