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Did the plastic industry use recycling to sell more plastic? With the industry expanding like never before and the crisis of ocean pollution growing, FRONTLINE and NPR investigate the fight over the future of plastics.
I just read your Viewpoint on the attempt of the California Attorney General to criminalize the plastics industry ["Investigating plastics: Is defending the industry a crime?" May 9, Page 6]. As a taxpayer in California it is appalling and unacceptable that our money should be used for this…
Critics today point to plastics' explosive growth since a PR campaign. But they didn't grow because of TV ads; they grew because they offer convenience and value, and because of the combined efforts of thousands to find new applications and to replace metal, glass and paper with plastic.
Embed MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST: Billions of tiny plastic pellets have been spilling into oceans and rivers the world over, where birds and fish eat them. They are the building blocks of all plastic. Melt 350 of them, you get a yogurt cup. A thousand gets you a water bottle. But an NPR and PBS "Frontline" investigation found the oil and plastic industry has long known they're an environmental problem. NPR's Laura Sullivan brings us this story about how the oil and plastic industry evaded regulation despite decades of spills.
Originally published on December 22, 2020 8:01 pm Look on the side of a highway sometime and you might see them. Or along the railroad tracks or a stream. Maybe even between your toes at the beach. Tiny pearl-shaped pieces of plastic, known as pellets, are the building blocks for almost everything plastic, and they're everywhere. They've spilled out of petrochemical plants, rail cars, shipping containers and trucks. Large spills have soiled beaches in Louisiana and South Carolina. New research suggests more than 230,000 tons of pellets enter the ocean each year, contaminating the water and s...