As a plastics recycling executive for many years and later as a recycling plant owner, all I can say is amen.

Plastics recycling is a shell game. The vast majority of plastic is not recycled, not even theoretically recyclable plastic, which is only a small percentage of all plastic ever produced anyway. It's not economical. It's not going to be economical. We use plastic because it's cheap, and if we ended up using recyclable plastic instead it wouldn't be cheap anymore. And what would be the point of that?

So, a few plastics recyclers get rich –in a useless shell game funded by unwitting taxpayers and encouraged by petroleum companies and plastics manufacturers – while the amount of discarded plastic just gets larger and more damaging.

I spent many years recycling plastic, and I don't even sort my plastic recyclables. Because I know that's a game for chumps. It is, as you say, puffery.