Plastics punch

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Mar 26, 2024 View in browser   By Jordan Wolman With help from Allison Prang THE BIG IDEA The plastics industry is looking to go on offense. | Ezra Acayan/Getty Images RECYCLING DUST-UP — A leading plastics industry group has launched a counteroffensive against environmentalists’ opposition to their calls to increase recycling, accusing green groups of fighting efforts to reduce pollution. The “Recycling is Real” campaign is an attempt to flip the script on green groups’ contention that recycling doesn’t work and that initiatives styled as efforts to reuse waste plastic are really just cover for plans to continue mass production of material that is clogging the world's landfills and waterways. Environmental advocacy groups like Beyond Plastics have become “anti-recycling” and are sowing distrust among consumers, according to Plastics Industry Association President and CEO Matt Seaholm. His group's counterprogramming is highlighted by videos focused on successful recycling programs at facilities around the country. “We’ve been advocating for things like recycled content requirements and extended producer responsibility, schemes that would increase and invest in recycling infrastructure,” Seaholm said. “And we were finding that we were having these conversations with lawmakers, but they were being told by these activist groups, ‘Don't bother recycling. It'll never happen. Just give up.’ And it was just really actually quite frustrating because we're trying to increase recycling rates. And we need policymakers to work with us on that.” Beyond Plastics President Judith Enck, who served as an EPA regional administrator during the Obama administration, says the problem is that unlike materials such as paper, glass and aluminum, plastics have never been recycled at a rate higher than 10 percent in the U.S. “They need to change their marketing to say that recycling is real except for plastics,” said Enck, whose organization wants to block new plastic manufacturing and plastic-burning facilities. “When I talk about the failure of plastic recycling, I always urge people to keep recycling paper, cardboard, metal, glass, compost yard waste and food waste,” she said. “But we need to be honest with the public that the plastic recycling rate is abysmal. And the plastics industry has to stop lying about this.” Environmental groups have also urged federal regulators to ramp up their scrutiny of the use of the iconic “chasing arrow” recycling symbol as an environmental marketing tool for products. Recycling has become a complicated policy point for environmental groups that are criticizing the plastics industry for not doing enough to reduce production and urging stricter regulation of what’s considered recyclable, while also trying not to destroy public faith in the potential for the recycling system to do good. Add in the fact that there are more than 9,000 local recycling programs nationwide, and it’s no wonder consumers are confused. “There is a nuance that often gets lost,” said Kate Bailey, chief policy officer at the Association of Plastic Recyclers. “While plastics recycling alone will not solve the problem, there is a role for recycling, and it can and should be scaled. A comprehensive set of actions will be needed to reduce plastic pollution. So, it's not as simple as an either/or, as some of the messaging is. It's really a both/and.” Enck said that plastics recycling has worked in states that have bottle bill legislation on the books — but that the industry isn’t working to support those efforts. That reminded us of an eye-opening moment late in 2022, when Enck and Seaholm agreed in theory at a congressional hearing on the benefits for a national bottle bill that hasn’t yet materialized. Seaholm said in an interview that bottle bill conversations have been ongoing but that he’s let other groups lead the charge. “It just hasn’t risen to a priority,” he said. AROUND THE NATION FINK FODDER— BlackRock Chair and CEO Larry Fink is out with his annual letter to investors, and it should come as no surprise that environmental, social and governance issues are nowhere near the top of the agenda. Fink, whose previous letters helped fuel the anti-ESG movement and put his company atop plenty of red-state fossil fuel “boycott” lists, focused this time around the probably less-inflammatory topic of retirement savings. It continues his shift away from emphatic public comment on ESG after he complained that the topic had become too politicized. He said that BlackRock still wants to lead in “sustainable investing,” but separately noted that the company has invested more than $300 billion in “traditional energy firms” for its clients. “We invest in these energy companies for one simple reason: It’s our clients’ money,” Fink wrote. “If they want to invest in hydrocarbons, we give them every opportunity to do it – the same way we invest roughly $138 billion in energy transition strategies for our clients.” He pointed to Texas, a state that has targeted BlackRock over its ESG policies, as a “great” example of the energy transition and specifically called out BlackRock's joint venture with Occidental Petroleum for Stratos, a direct air capture project in the state. “The energy market isn’t divided the way some people think, with a hard split between oil & gas producers on one side and new clean power and climate tech firms on the other,” Fink wrote. “Many companies, like Occidental, do both, which is a major reason BlackRock has never supported divesting from traditional energy firms. They’re pioneers of decarbonization, too.” AROUND THE WORLD METHANE ON THE MIND — A global poll released Tuesday found overwhelming support for actions to curb the highly-potent methane emissions that are contributing to global warming. About 82 percent of the nearly 13,000 adults from 17 countries and six continents surveyed late last year said they want to tackle methane pollution, according to the Global Methane Hub, a group coordinating mitigation funding. About a quarter of respondents, who had to have internet access to participate, said climate change has an “extreme impact” on their lives, with adults identified as living in the Global South reporting more intense impacts than their counterparts elsewhere. Here are some other quick takeaways: — Kenya has the highest and most intense level of support for addressing climate change, with 96 percent total support and 80 percent “strongly” supporting. — Brazilian respondents reported the most personal impact, with 47 percent calling it “extreme.” — South Korea has the highest “informed familiarity” of methane’s harmful impacts. — Both concern for climate change and belief that it’s caused by human activity is comparatively low in the U.S. DATA DIVE BONDING TIME — A report out Tuesday shows that a new financial instrument designed to incentivize projects that fight climate change isn’t yet living up to the hype. The sustainability-linked bond market is fraught with “a high share of low-quality deals that lack ambition, credibility, and adequate disclosure,” according to the report from the Climate Bonds Initiative, an investor-focused nonprofit. About 86 percent of SLBs aren’t aligned with climate best practices since market inception in 2018, the report found. Sustainable debt had been soaring in recent years before a slowdown in 2023. The bonds could be a critical way to transition capital into clean energy and other climate change-fighting activities, but questions linger about its credibility and ability to deliver tangible benefits. The biggest reasons for the bonds’ lack of alignment with the Paris Agreement is a lack of greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets and failure to account for the full scope of those emissions. Critiques around a lack of ambition in target-setting are largely valid concerns, the report notes. Still, there’s a glimmer of hope: The percentage of SLBs aligned to Paris goals of limiting global warming more than doubled to 35 percent in 2023 through November, most notably in the second part of the year after Climate Bonds released its SLB methodology in July. YOU TELL US GAME ON — Welcome to the Long Game, where we tell you about the latest on efforts to shape our future. Join us every Tuesday as we keep you in the loop on the world of sustainability. Team Sustainability is editor Greg Mott and reporters Jordan Wolman and Allison Prang. Reach us all at gmott@politico.com, jwolman@politico.com and aprang@politico.com. Sign up for the Long Game. It's free! WHAT WE'RE CLICKING — The EPA’s new tailpipe emissions rules were dialed back sufficiently to put them squarely in the wheelhouse of EV laggard Toyota, the New York Times reports. — China and Russia are fighting U.S. claims to a section of mineral-rich seabed that makes up its continental shelf, citing America’s failure to join a key U.N. treaty, the Financial Times reports. CBS News’ “60 Minutes” devoted a segment to the conflict over this past weekend. — Interested in taking your efforts to fight global warming on vacation this year? The New York Times looks at ways to shrink your carbon footprint in summer rentals.   Follow us on Twitter Debra Kahn @debra_kahn Greg Mott @gwmott Jordan Wolman @jordanwolman Allison Prang @AllisonPrang   Follow us

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