First Page
281
Abstract
Everyday plastic items typically display the chasing arrows symbol with a resin identification code. When seen on a plastic product, this seemingly insignificant trade combination causes the average consumer’s mind to confer unwarranted environmental benefits to the item. Plastic, unlike aluminum, glass, or paper, poses barriers to recycling that diminish a region’s recycling capabilities. Despite knowing most Americans lack the knowledge necessary to properly discard plastic waste, plastic-producing companies continue to plaster chasing arrows symbols and resin identification codes onto their products. Worse yet, these companies do so without explaining the available recycling opportunities or challenges associated with recycling most plastics. This in turn misleads consumers to believe they are aiding the environment when they “recycle” plastic products that are actually destined for a landfill—thereby contributing to a phenomenon known as greenwashing.
U.S. policymakers have provided a mosaic of responses aimed at preventing greenwashing. These disjointed approaches coalesce into an inefficient regulatory framework that plastic-producing companies can circumvent with relative ease. The fractured responses to greenwashing in the plastics industry call for a solution that bypasses the varying governmental approaches and political polarization. This Note proposes a third-party certification as a private environmental solution to greenwashing in the plastics industry. Following the lead of the Marine Stewardship Council and its Blue Fish Label, this Note promotes a certification that addresses the plastic problem’s critical barriers to a solution while navigating political polarization.
Recommended Citation
Trip Johnson,
Cleaning the Plastic Spring,
78 Vanderbilt Law Review
281
(2025)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/vlr/vol78/iss1/6
