Want a better image for plastics? Consultant says to tackle waste, recycling

Naples, Fla. — The American public won't listen to much of anything the plastics industry has to say about its contributions to society until they feel companies are cleaning up plastics in the ocean and fixing recycling.

At least that's what the head of a leading sustainability marketing and strategy company recently told an audience of plastics industry executives.

Suzanne Shelton, CEO of the Shelton Group Inc. in Nashville, Tenn., said the extensive polling her firm does indicates that plastics are the public's top environmental worry and that the concerns are growing.

"We are more concerned about plastics in the environment than any other environmental issue we test," Shelton said in a presentation at the Plastics News Executive Forum, held March 21-23 in Naples. "This is a very real issue and people are freaked out about it."

The coronavirus pandemic briefly reduced concerns, but it's climbed back and remains the public's chief environmental and sustainability worry, even if climate change may have a much bigger impact on the world, she said.

"We were more concerned about plastics in the ocean before COVID, during COVID and after COVID," she said. "It is the issue that we are the most worried about, even more than climate change, and arguably climate change is the bigger issue."

Shelton's 30-employee firm builds sustainability marketing campaigns for large companies like Eastman Chemical, CertainTeed, Georgia Pacific and Mattel.

Its polling shows 90 percent of the public last year felt the amount of plastic trash in oceans and waterways was at an all-time high, up from 77 percent in 2020.

Her firm's data also pointed to increasing skepticism that recycling is a good solution, which she called a troubling sign for the industry because plastics companies have staked a lot around boosting recycling as a key to how they want to solve the problem.

"The promise of the blue bin is starting to crack," she said. "Thirty percent of us today are not all confident that what we toss in the recycling bin is actually recycled. That's a problem because just a few years ago [in 2019], that number was 14 percent.

"We've doubled the skepticism in the last three years," she said. "That's not good."

What the public wants to see, she said, are efforts to clean up the ocean, fix problems with recycling and have recycled content in products that's "abundantly available."

"They want materials that have high recycled content and are easy to recycle and actually get recycled," she said. "If they believe that's plastics, great, they will buy plastics somewhat chagriningly because they don't like plastics in the ocean. But if they begin to believe that's paper or steel or aluminum, then they're going to gravitate toward that."

She told the audience of about 200 industry executives that while they may not be seeing a move away from plastics in their sales figures, half of Americans say they're buying fewer single-use plastics.

"You may tell me, 'Yeah, we don't see that in our sales data,' [but that could be] because there may not be another option," she said. "You might see them buying plastic because that's what's available, but you'd be in better shape if you could tell a robust story about how you're keeping it out of the oceans, how you're including high recycled content and how you're making sure it's recyclable."

Shelton said people act as their "best selves" in responding to surveys, and their actions may not always match their answers. But the data in her firm's polling, from statistically valid surveys of between 1,000 and 2,000 Americans three times a year, points to strong concern.

The public is very invested in recycling — 95 percent of Americans say it's good for the environment — and her presentation said that 76 percent of Americans agree "recycling makes me feel better about the amount of things I purchase or consume."

"This is the promise we've made to people for decades — go ahead and buy whatever you want; it's all good," she said. "Buy whatever you want because you're going to put it into the blue bin and it's going to go to this other magical place called away and it's going to become something else."

A working recycling system can help the public feel better about plastics, she suggested, and show progress toward reducing climate change.

"We as an industry want to keep the promise of the recycling bin. We want to make it work, so that again, they don't feel as bad about plastics and so that we can actually capture that material and keep that carbon in play forever," she said.

If the public doesn't believe recycling is working, that could pose problems for the industry's plans to get enough materials for the chemical recycling facilities it's building, she said.

In her presentation, she said her group's polling shows that 67 percent of the public wants industry to take responsibility for the end-of-life disposal of their products.

Several audience questions to Shelton asked why the public doesn't blame itself for plastic litter, or they said litter in the ocean largely comes from poor waste management in Asia. Shelton said she believes consumers want to know what the industry is doing about the problem and isn't interested in blaming itself or seeing it as mainly as something coming from Asia.

"They're kind of tired of this idea of, 'Oh, consumers, you should recycle more; you should recycle better,'" Shelton said. "They're tired of the industry telling them that.

"They want the industry to clean up the problem," she said. "I do think that's the secret to how you all are going to turn the corner on public perception of plastics."

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the plastics industry ran a long-running television ad campaign that spent $25 million a year promoting the "Plastics Make it Possible" message.

Industry polling at the time said it gave the public a more favorable opinion of plastic, but Shelton was skeptical such an approach pay big dividends today.

"We've done a lot of business in the plastics space, and I can't tell you how many executives have said, 'We've got to get a campaign out there to help people appreciate plastics,'" she said. "Well, the only thing that's going to make people appreciate plastics or feel better about plastic is if you all keep them out of the ocean."

She said the plastics industry should look to campaigns from the aluminum industry that are "really hammering infinite recyclability."

"I think that industry has done a really good job, and I would keep my eyes peeled for them to be a hell of a lot more aggressive," Shelton said.

Shelton said cleaning up waste, improving recycling and using recycled content would give the industry "a platform where you can get out there and scream from the rooftops."

There's another potential bright spot to build on. The public has a favorable impression of companies and industries that treat employees well, she said.

"What I can tell you is they really care about how you are treating your employees, so that's something the whole industry could be talking about," Shelton said.

But she also told the crowd that she didn't think a good message about employees can automatically overcome environmental concerns now.

"It's not a panacea, but it's a way to begin to get over any assumptions or knee-jerk paint-brushing people might do about the industry you're in," she said.

Several industry executives speaking at the forum noted contributions plastic products made during COVID-19 in medical care and food hygiene and said they thought it would help the public better appreciate the industry.

But Shelton expressed skepticism that companies should expect too much from that, saying that while environmental concerns did nosedive in polling during the pandemic, the "concern about plastics in the ocean was still higher than any other environmental issue we test."

"That concern is still there," she said. "Maybe they feel a little bit better and appreciate the job plastics did during COVID, but they're still really worried about the waste. The waste issue is your issue, and that's the thing that's harming your public perception."