“Exxon gets it!” is a rallying cry that has angered and inspired climate activists for decades. They claim that since the 1970s, “Exxon knew” that man-made climate change was “real” but lied about it, claiming there was no “crisis” and continually promoted its plan to “destroy the planet” of fuels and petrochemical raw materials. [emphasis, links added]
Now, campaigners say “ExxonMobil has known for years” that little plastic waste is recycled.
The oil giant deceived regulators and consumers by claiming that all plastic is recyclable and that its “advanced recycling” process keeps vast amounts of plastic out of landfills.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said ExxonMobil's “deceptive activity” warranted prosecution. “Exxon knows” that 95% of the plastic in recycling bins is burned, thrown on the road or ends up in landfills and oceans.
“Exxon knows” that when it promotes recycling as a “cure for plastic waste,” it is selling a lie—because it is impossible to eliminate the use and disposal of all plastics, and many plastics cannot be recycled.
It's Mr. Bonta's latest attack on fossil fuels. He wants a jury trial to help secure hefty legal fees. But he ignored inconvenient realities and engaged in rampant deception.
Plastics are everywhere: from eyeglass frames and lenses to televisions, computer and cell phone casings, wind turbine blades and nacelles, solar panel frames, medical equipment, equipment and apparel, car and aircraft interiors, backpacks, snowboards, football helmets, shoes, groceries Bags etc.
Plastic packaging preserves and protects products that involve lengthy, expensive, resource-intensive growing or manufacturing processes; it helps prevent food from spoiling or bacterial growth.
Plastic is cheap to produce, can be molded into infinite shapes and sizes, is corrosion-resistant, and won’t break easily (think shampoo and shower gel in glass bottles).
They are lighter than glass or even paper alternatives, which means more items can be packed on a truck and use less fuel to transport. In many cases, there is no viable alternative.
Plastics are vital to our living standards, safety and modern world.
But what happens when they break, wear out, or are discarded? Over the years, they were discarded along with other trash. But environmentalists, politicians and consumers are increasingly demanding the recycling of cans, glass and other single-use items. For many of us, recycling has become a habit.
Recycling turns low-value plastic waste into valuable materials: window frames, boards for siding and fences, pipes to replace copper pipes stolen by thieves, toys and toothbrushes, plates and utensils, diapers and clothing, carpets and lawn furniture , football fields, bottles, cabinets, etc.
Neither ExxonMobil nor any other company promotes recycling as a magic solution or a panacea for all ailments.
It is more expensive than virgin plastic, especially when shipping and sorting costs are taken into account. Colored plastics have fewer recycling options than clear or white plastics.
On top of that, many types of plastic have little post-use demand or cannot be recycled at all. Other products are integrated with circuits (motherboards and keyboards) or paper or metal (laminate for food containers) and therefore cannot be separated and recycled.
Thermoplastics can be heated, melted, reshaped or re-extruded into new products. These are the familiar #1 (PET) soda and water bottles, #2 (HDPE) milk and detergent containers, many #4 (LDPE) grocery bags and squeezable bottles, and some #5 (PP) yogurt and butter containers .
Thermosets contain polymers that form irreversible chemical bonds to create strong products that cannot be remelted: vulcanized rubber for tires, bakelite kitchenware, jewelry and circuit boards, epoxies, thermoset plastic car bodies and toilet seats, polyurethane cushions, insulation and Windshield etc.
Styrofoam cups and egg cartons cannot be recycled without (rare) specialized equipment and processes.
Additionally, even thermoplastics can only be recycled 2-3 times before their polymer chains shorten, causing the quality and durability to become so low that the product is unusable.
(Newspapers, magazines, photocopy paper, and brown paper bags all suffer from the same degradation problem: after 6-7 trips to the recycling bin, the cellulose fibers are too shortened, damaged, and degraded to be reused. Steel, aluminum, and glass, on the other hand, generally last indefinitely. Used in cycles.
All this complexity explains why only a small proportion of plastic is recycled. The 60,000,00-80,000,000 pounds of plastic ExxonMobil recycles each year seems insignificant compared to the 73,000,000 pounds of plastic ton Plastic waste in the United States every year.
However, that's the equivalent of 430-570 offshore wind turbine blades (350 feet long; each weighing 140,000 pounds) that would end up in a Grand Canyon-style landfill.
In addition, plastic waste can be converted into diesel, aviation and gasoline fuels, and even electricity.
A brilliant solution is to convert plastic and most other waste into electricity to meet the needs of our increasingly power-hungry society – especially as artificial intelligence and data centers proliferate, and politicians demand that we convert gas furnaces, Oven, furnace and water heater converted to electric models.
A municipal waste-to-energy (WTE)/resource recovery facility operated by Reworld/Covanta performed these fantastic conversions just a few miles from my home.
Large quantities of commonly landfilled, non-recyclable household, commercial, industrial, government and agricultural waste are dumped into a receiving area, where unacceptable materials (such as rocks) are sorted, thoroughly mixed, and then poured into the combustion chamber, where everything is Burning in the combustion chamber.
Process heat is converted into steam, which drives turbines to generate 80 megawatts of electricity, enough to power approximately 52,000 homes. Since 1990, the plant has consumed the equivalent of approximately 2,000,000 barrels of crude oil annually.
There is dust and odor in the facility; water from the waste is recycled, treated and used as coolant; both air and water pollutants are well below EPA standards.
Even plastic and metal electronic waste (computers, monitors, keyboards, printers, and artificial intelligence and data center machines) and “clean, green” energy equipment such as solar panels can be “recycled” in this way.
Enough iron, steel, aluminum, copper and other metals are recovered from the ash produced to manufacture 20,000 cars a year.
The process also melts and recycles glass and even metals from e-waste, light bulb bases, paper clips, staples and the metal bottoms of cardboard juice containers.
When the entire process is over, only non-toxic ash remains—about 5 percent of the original waste mass—and is used in cement and other applications or sent to landfill.
It reminds me of the old feedlot saying: The only part of the pig that isn't used is the squeal.
I have a few questions for Mr. Bonta:
• If oil and gas are banned, where will plastics, paints, pharmaceuticals and other products come from?
• What plastics and critical plastic items are you planning to eliminate? What would doctors, pharmacists, optometrists, computer and mobile phone users and other consumers do without them?
• Acknowledging that California has closed most of its nuclear, coal and natural gas plants; that its net-zero, all-electric mandate will soon double the state's electricity needs; and that the state already imports a third of its electricity from neighboring countries – Why not sue rapid waste incineration plants?
• Why not sue Governor Newsom, President Biden, Vice President Harris, your state Legislature and yourself for fraud and misinformation about green energy that is not clean, green, renewable or sustainable?
It’s time to recognize that “progressive” policies, mandates, and lawsuits impose enormous costs on taxpayers, consumers, and our environment, while politicians continue to feed lies to citizens.
Popular photo on Unsplash by Nick Fewings
Paul Driessen is a senior policy analyst at the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org) and the author of books and articles on energy, environment, climate and human rights issues.
