>>4675The story goes that back in the 70s and 80s people were raising a stink about the amount of plastic waste being produced in the US. There was talk about it and petitioning of the government and blahblah, but one important thing to know is that plastic is connected to petroleum and oil refining which means it's connected to the oil industry.
If you try to take action against the oil industry you're never going to win.
The "solution" was that after some heavy lobbying, the plastic companies said they would start recycling stuff. Did they build factories or develop new technology or anything? No, of course not. The solution was to print labels on plastic bottles without any plan or technology to actually do so, placating people into thinking something was being done. The actual labeling on bottles had no government relation or recognition.
The whole plastics recycling thing of today is an attempt by good-natured people to try and clean up the gigantic mess that the oil conglomerates made, but it's utterly impossible to do so due to a lack of funding and magical technology.