I'm curious what it will mean for the future of AI that we're constantly seeing how that isn't true.

@rebecca-altman.bsky.social introduced me to the Stouffer doc and has written about the industry's promotion of single use plastics in various places, including her essay "American Beauties," which is definitely worth reading web.archive.org/web/20191113...

If you're interested in reading more about this transition, we wrote about it in the context of the industry's deceptive promotion of recycling (including how the industry capitalized on dozens of children suffocating on plastic bags to push disposability) in a report published last year

Glad you found it! In that same doc Stouffer writes that "The happy day has arrived when nobody any longer considers the plastics package too good to throw away." The whole thing is a pretty fascinating read.

Read the full report here: climateintegrity.org/projects/adv...

This is just a new version of the same story: the plastics industry's attempt to use the idea of recycling to protect its license to operate and continue producing ever-greater amounts of plastic, regardless of the consequences.

Advanced recycling allows the industry to present the public with a seemingly acceptable solution that doesn't put limits on plastic production. It provides the industry with the cover of a perfect technological solution that demands no changes in the way we use plastics.

According to the state of California's lawsuit against ExxonMobil, the company has promoted AR, at least in part, to avoid that outcome–what it sees as "the 'negative' impacts/consequences of the ... adoption of the circular economy way of thinking."

As an investment firm with industry ties explained, any positive impacts associated with AR would require "shifting away from oil exploration and new extraction infrastructure," since it would only lead to benefits "when it displaces the use of virgin plastics."