Before we had blue bins and sorting stations, human beings were recycling. When garbage collection began in the late 19th century, workers sorted through refuse bound for the landfill and those things that were reusable. Then plastics came on the scene and became more widely used in the 1960s and 70s because they were cheap, easy to manufacture, sanitary, and, in theory, disposable or recyclable. It turns out that the last part about plastic being recyclable is, in fact, a lie. A recent report revealed that plastics producers have lied to the public about recycling for over thirty years. The report from the The Center for Climate Integrity underscores the dire fact that only about 9% of plastics actually get recycled, while the other 91% end up in landfills or are incinerated, resulting in a whole variety of plastic pollution and toxic air pollution all over the world. Some of this stems from the fact that the plastics industry has created a highly lucrative market for oil and gas industries, both of which have powerful global lobbying arms–so powerful that plastic producers are even working their way into schools to change the narrative around plastics. Read the full story by Abigail Bassett at Climatebase. climateba.se/3IoR82B