The plastics industry spent decades convincing consumers that throwing used products stamped with the “chasing arrows” symbol into a curbside bin meant they would be recycled.
asserted
they → spend → bin
Now, amid growing awareness that many of those items never get reprocessed, the industry is championing a pair of proposals in Congress that would give misleading recycling claims the support of federal law.
uncertain
that → grow → law
On the surface, the two bipartisan House bills promise transparency for consumers by establishing national standards for recycling and recycled content labels.
asserted
bills → promise → recycling
But the legislation — promoted by oil, chemical and packaging companies that spend millions of dollars lobbying Congress each year — would forbid states from setting stricter requirements.
asserted
that → promote → requirements
That would neutralize efforts like California’s “truth in labeling” law, which bans the chasing arrow symbol on plastic products that contain toxic chemicals or that can’t realistically be recycled.
asserted
that → neutralize → chemicals
One of the measures would endorse a controversial form of “mass balance” accounting that allows companies to claim a product contains recycled content when virtually none of it came from reprocessed plastic.
uncertain
none → endorse → plastic
Two years ago, a ProPublica investigation exposed the misleading, mathematical sleight of hand used in that type of mass balance, which the Biden administration subsequently prohibited for specific products.
asserted
administration → expose → products
Both bills, which have gained momentum and could face a full House vote after the midterm elections, “are peak greenwashing,” Rachel Fullmer, a staff attorney on toxics and environmental health at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in an email.
uncertain
Fullmer → gain → email
They “champion deceptive, anti-consumer policies which would result in an increase in plastic production and plastic waste incineration, all while hiding behind the false brand of ‘recycling.’”
asserted
which → champion → recycling
Experts say the best solution to the plastics crisis wreaking havoc on human health and the environment is to make and use less of the material; recycling remains a marginal solution at best.
asserted
recycling → say → material
The bills tackle a growing threat to the industry, as several states have proposed or passed laws that require manufacturers to more honestly acknowledge the challenges of recycling plastic.
asserted
that → tackle → plastic
Those measures could force companies to spend money changing their packaging or labels.
uncertain
measures → force → packaging
The Consumer Brands Association, which represents the packaged goods industry including Amazon, PepsiCo and Land O’Lakes, praised the House bills.
asserted
which → represent → bills
These proposals “work in tandem to reduce consumer confusion and plastic waste while providing much-needed clarity to support new domestic innovations and investments,” the organization wrote to the leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in July.
asserted
organization → work → July
They “demonstrate that consumer protection and recycling-focused efforts go hand-in-hand with promoting affordability and manufacturing investments, and we strongly encourage your support for both bills.”
asserted
we → demonstrate → bills
The association spent $2.4 million in the first half of 2026 lobbying on these bills and other issues, according to data from OpenSecrets.
uncertain
association → spend → OpenSecrets
In September, the two recycling bills cleared the House committee.
asserted
bills → clear → committee
Five Democratic House members, including three from Texas, are among the 13 co-sponsors of the bill that endorses mass balance accounting.
asserted
that → include → accounting
The other has 19 co-sponsors, including one Democrat.
asserted
other → have → Democrat
A few weeks ago, Sen. John Curtis, a Utah Republican, introduced the mass balance bill in the Senate; it currently has no other co-sponsors.
asserted
it → introduce → sponsors
Sheen of Recyclability
Consumers have long been confused by the chasing arrows symbol on many plastic containers.
asserted
Consumers → confuse → containers
The label was created in 1970 to encourage paper recycling.
asserted
label → create → recycling
The plastics industry began placing it on its products in the 1980s to quell public outrage over plastic pollution.
asserted
industry → begin → pollution
The symbol gave plastic the sheen of recyclability, even though most items cannot be reprocessed due to economic or technical barriers.
asserted
items → give → barriers
The Environmental Protection Agency estimated that 8.7% of U.S. plastic waste was recycled in 2018; the rest ended up in landfills or was incinerated.
asserted
rest → estimate → landfills
In 2019, the Department of Energy estimated the national plastic recycling rate at 5%.
asserted
Department → estimate → %
In recent years, the plastics industry has touted the promise of chemical recycling, a set of costly, often polluting technologies that break plastic into its molecular building blocks.
asserted
that → tout → blocks
Theoretically, these processes could take the most stubborn, unrecyclable plastics, like grocery store bags or string cheese wrappers, and rebuild them into new products.
That rarely happens.
uncertain
That → take → products
It uses oil refinery equipment to heat up the plastic and transform it into different chemical compounds.
asserted
It → use → compounds
Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator, visited the Baytown plant last year.
asserted
Zeldin → visit → plant
He later appeared in a promotional video, calling the facility a “proof of concept” for chemical recycling that could inspire “this entire country.”
uncertain
that → appear → country
But only 8% of the plastic waste processed by ExxonMobil gets transformed into new plastic, according to the California attorney general’s office, which sued the company in 2024 over “deceptively” promoting chemical recycling as an environmental solution.
uncertain
which → process → solution
The other 92% mostly becomes fuel, which is burned rather than made into plastic products.
asserted
which → become → products
Citing internal company records, the lawsuit states that the recycled plastic is so heavily diluted with new plastic, the resulting products contain less than 0.1% recycled content.
asserted
products → cite → content
In response, the company said in a court filing that while the state of California may not believe ExxonMobil’s recycling technologies are sufficient to solve the plastic waste crisis, “ExxonMobil did not assume liability for global pollution by innovating solutions to the problem.”
uncertain
ExxonMobil → say → problem
The company has marketed its chemically recycled products as containing “30% ISCC PLUS certified-circular” content, a technical term that could easily be misinterpreted as meaning 30% recycled material.
uncertain
that → market → material
That label is possible through a specific type of mass balance, which allows companies to claim credit in a new plastic product for the recycled molecules going into other things made in the chemical recycling process.
uncertain
companies → allow → process
Manufacturers can inflate the reported recycledness, or “circularity,” of the more lucrative products like plastic, while reducing the advertised recycled content of less valuable products.
asserted
Manufacturers → inflate → products
The Recycled Materials Attribution Act, introduced by Rep. Nick Langworthy, a New York Republican, would require the Federal Trade Commission to edit the Green Guides — advertising guidelines designed to prevent greenwashing — so mass balance is recognized as “an acceptable method for substantiating recycled content claims.”
uncertain
balance → introduce → claims
It would bypass the FTC’s own process for revising the Green Guides, which began several years ago.
asserted
which → bypass → Guides
…and 47 more, not listed.
The Aporia
