Recycle and Die

"Industry documents from this time show that just a couple of years earlier, starting in 1989, oil and plastics executives began a quiet campaign to lobby almost 40 states to mandate that the symbol appear on all plastic—even if there was no way to economically recycle it. Some environmentalists also supported the symbol, thinking it would help separate plastic.
"Smith said what it did was make all plastic look recyclable.
"'The consumers were confused,' Smith says. 'It totally undermined our credibility, undermined what we knew was the truth in our community, not the truth from a lobbying group out of D.C.'
"But the lobbying group in D.C. knew the truth in Smith's community too. A report given to top officials at the Society of the Plastics Industry in 1993 told them about the problems.
"'The code is being misused,' it says bluntly. 'Companies are using it as a 'green' marketing tool.'"

Laura Sullivan at NPR writes about how oil companies "sold the public on an idea it knew wouldn't work—that the majority of plastic could be, and would be, recycled—all while making billions of dollars selling the world new plastic."