(The uardian) Five firms in plastic pollution alliance ‘made 1,000 times more plastic than they cleaned up’

Companies such as ExxonMobil, Dow, Shell, TotalEnergies and ChevronPhillips have only diverted 0.1% of the plastic they produced since 2019 away from the environment, according to data.

Oil and chemical companies who created a high-profile alliance to end plastic pollution have produced 1,000 times more new plastic in five years than the waste they diverted from the environment, according to new data obtained by Greenpeace.

The Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) was set up in 2019 by a group of companies which include ExxonMobil, Dow, Shell, TotalEnergies and ChevronPhillips, some of the world’s biggest producers of plastic. They promised to divert 15m tonnes of plastic waste from the environment in five years to the end of 2023, by improving collection and recycling, and creating a circular economy.

“The recycling schemes they’re promoting can barely make a dent in all the plastic these companies are pumping out,” he said. “They’re letting the running tap flood the house while trying to scoop up the water with a teaspoon. The only solution is to cut the amount of plastic produced in the first place.”

Bill McKibben, a US environmentalist, said: “It’s hard to imagine a clearer example of greenwashing in this world. The oil and gas industry – which is pretty much the same thing as the plastics industry – has been at this for decades.”

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/20/five-firms-in-plastic-pollution-alliance-made-1000-times-more-waste-than-they-saved-analysis-shows