Plastics on trial

The document outlines the legal risks associated with plastic waste management, specifically focusing on incineration, recycling claims, and the illegal trade of plastic waste. It highlights how companies are increasingly exposed to litigation due to the environmental and health impacts of incineration, the perceived failure of recycling to solve the plastics crisis, and breaches of international waste shipment treaties like the Basel Convention.

• Industrial incineration of plastic waste generates significant greenhouse gas emissions, with burning plastic emitting 2.9kg of carbon dioxide for every kilogram burned. In Europe, energy from incineration is approximately twice as carbon-intensive as average grid electricity.
• Incineration facilities are linked to toxic emissions and byproducts, such as ash containing persistent organic pollutants, which can cause cancers and birth defects. These facilities are disproportionately located in marginalized and low-income areas.
• Corporate claims that recycling can solve the plastics crisis are facing legal scrutiny. In April 2022, the California Attorney General launched an investigation into the petrochemical and fossil fuel industries, including ExxonMobil, to determine if they perpetuated a "myth" about recycling to violate deceptive business practice laws.
• Chemical or 'advanced' recycling is criticized as a potential 'greenwashing' tool for incineration. A US study indicated that most chemical recycling facilities produce materials that are burned rather than recycled. There are calls to regulate gasification and pyrolysis as "municipal waste combustion units" under the Clean Air Act.
• Plastic credit schemes, used by consumer goods companies to claim "plastic neutrality," are viewed as high-risk for future legal challenges, mirroring lawsuits against "net zero" and "climate neutrality" carbon offsetting claims.
• The illegal trade of plastic waste is a significant issue, with the European Commission estimating that 15–30% of waste shipments may be illegal. Amendments to the Basel Convention, effective January 2021, make the breach of restrictions on mixed or hazardous plastic waste a criminal offence.
• Companies have faced criminal prosecution for illegal waste shipments. In the US, executives of Total Reclaim admitted to fraud for shipping electronics waste to Hong Kong. In 2020, an illegal contract between Italy's Sviluppo Risorse Ambientali and Tunisia's Soreplast led to the shipment of household and hospital waste mislabelled as plastic for recycling.

APA

ClientEarth (2022). Plastics on trial. https://www.clientearth.org/media/durfpjzw/plastics-on-trial-4-waste.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. Plastics on trial. 2022. https://www.clientearth.org/media/durfpjzw/plastics-on-trial-4-waste.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=ClientEarth |title=Plastics on trial |date=September 2022 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/durfpjzw/plastics-on-trial-4-waste.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{clientearth2022plastics, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{Plastics on trial}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2022}, month = sep, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/durfpjzw/plastics-on-trial-4-waste.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }