In 2019, the world’s largest oil and petrochemical companies launched the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, branding it as a $1.5 billion solution to the escalating crisis of plastic pollution. On paper, it sounds promising. In reality, it appears to be little more than a glossy PR exercise.

Over five years, the Alliance has removed just 119,000 tonnes of plastic waste—an amount dwarfed by the 132 million tonnes produced by its leading members during the same period. For every tonne cleaned, these companies created over 1,000. Meanwhile, they continue to lobby against plastic bans and limits on plastic production.

“It’s hard to imagine a clearer example of greenwashing in this world,” the environmental campaigner Bill McKibben told Unearthed. “The oil and gas industry – which is pretty much the same thing as the plastics industry – has been at this for decades.”

Each year, humans generate 350 million tonnes of plastic waste, most of which is not recycled. The idea of a $1.5 billion cleanup initiative seems compelling, but when you look at the Alliance’s founding members—Exxon, Shell, Dow Chemical, and Chevron Phillips Chemical, you may start to be a little skeptical.

Here’s the thing: plastics are a lifeline for oil companies facing declining demand for fossil fuels. The International Energy Agency estimates that plastics and other petrochemicals will drive 50% of the growth in oil demand by 2050. The incentive of oil and chemistry companies is to keep producing plastic, even as research clearly shows that solving the plastic crisis requires a big drop in plastic production.

So why is a group of companies that want to produce more plastic allegedly fighting against plastic? Well, the idea is that they want to focus on cleaning plastic to divert efforts from producing less plastic.

An environmental campaign spearheaded by a PR company

The Alliance is the brainchild of Weber Shandwick, a PR agency commissioned by the powerful American Chemistry Council (ACC). The ACC represents some of the world’s largest oil and chemical companies, many of whom also form the core of the Alliance.

Leaked documents analyzed by Unearthed show the ACC’s intent was to reshape the narrative around plastic waste. Facing increasing regulations and public backlash, they sought to move the conversation away from bans on single-use plastics toward other “long-term solutions” like recycling.

The brief was to “create a campaign to change the conversation – away from short-term simplistic bans of plastic to real, long-term solutions for managing plastic waste.” Weber Shandwick made an even bigger pitch. 

“We wanted to shift the global marine litter debate to one focused on real, long-term solutions to marine litter, rather than on short-sighted bans on plastic that would not address the issue,” the agency wrote, according to a leaked memo obtained by Unearthed, an environmental investigative journalism publication that is operated by the nonprofit organization Greenpeace. 

The ACC paid the PR agency $3 million. Another $7 was paid directly by the Alliance for its ongoing promotional work, according to tax filings. In total, the Alliance has spent over $10 million on communications consultants—nearly three times the amount it has dedicated annually to actual cleanup efforts.

A spokesperson for the Alliance said there is “no factual basis” to the suggestion that the group engages in greenwashing — and yet, when you look at what the Alliance has done other than PR, there’s not that much.

The Alliance did little to curb plastic pollution

The Alliance initially aimed to remove 15 million tonnes of waste over five years, but that goal was quietly shelved as “too ambitious.” Instead, the group cleaned up just 119,000 tonnes—less than what its members produce every two days.

Not only are the companies not cleaning up nearly enough plastic, they’re ramping up production.

Since the Alliance’s founding, ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies have increased their plastic-producing capacity by 20%, adding millions of tonnes annually. Shell alone opened a $14 billion polyethylene facility in Pennsylvania in 2022, capable of producing 1.6 million tonnes of plastic annually—nearly ten times the Alliance’s entire cleanup budget.

Talking to Unearthed, the Alliance strongly denied that this is greenwashing, adding that their mandate is to “identify solutions that support the collection, sorting, and recycling of plastic waste and promote a circular economy for plastics”. The ACC also said that the Alliance is an independent organization — and yet, this fits perfectly with what the oil industry has done for decades.

The classic oil playbook

The oil industry’s history of deflection is well-documented. Decades ago, companies shifted the focus of climate action to individual responsibility while doubling down on fossil fuel production. Oil companies like Exxon, Total, or Chevron have known fossil fuels are causing climate change for some 50 years. Yet not only did they continue to produce oil, but they also invested billions in disinformation.

Similarly, the Alliance emphasizes cleanup efforts, particularly in developing countries, to distract from the root problem: the overproduction of plastics.

There’s another striking similarity: fossil fuel companies have made great efforts to emphasize individual responsibility for carbon footprints, while at the same time expanding fossil fuel extraction. In the same way, the Alliance seems to focus on waste cleanup in developing countries, deflecting attention from skyrocketing plastic production driven by its members.

This tactic, critics argue, is designed to stall regulation, protect profits, and maintain the illusion of environmental action while perpetuating unsustainable growth. The fact that they want to “change the conversation” from “simplistic bans of plastic” to cleaning efforts suggests a similar approach.

The Alliance also has had a significant lobbying presence at the UN plastic waste talks, in which they consistently argued that reductions in plastic production should not be included in the treaty. Meanwhile, the EU and environmental groups are pushing for more stringent measures, including global targets for reducing plastic production and eliminating toxic chemicals.

David Azoulay, director of environmental health at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), a nonprofit, told Unearthed that this approach would divert attention from real solutions to the plastics crisis, such as reducing production, and instead continue the industry’s expansion. He added: “If someone were to design a Bond-villain-style poster child for greenwashing and political manipulation, they would be hard-pressed to conjure a better one than the Alliance to End Plastic Waste.”

To end plastic pollution, we need to produce less, not more

An Oxford report concluded that even if we report almost all the plastic we produce (which is a far cry from what we’re doing today), we still need to curb plastic pollution by around half — instead, we’re increasing it now.

“Plastic pollution is not simply a waste issue,” Ellen Palm, a researcher at Roskilde University in Denmark, said. “To address it effectively, policy interventions across the full life cycle of plastics are essential… That means a rapid and substantial reduction in the production and use of plastics.”

For the petrochemical industry, this is a business opportunity. Demand for fossil fuels appears to be plateauing and is expected to start decreasing in a few years. Pivoting to more plastic production is a way to keep the income flowing.

“The industry is starting to accept the fact that oil demand for road transport fuels will inevitably decline,” according to Saidrasul Ashrafkhanov, an analyst at the think tank Carbon Tracker, “so it’s pivoting to petrochemicals and plastics to try to offset that.”

For a company like Exxon, which averages $20 billion in profits per year, this type of initiative is peanuts. However, the idea of continuing to produce more plastic while claiming to solve the plastic problem is only smoke and mirrors. Studies clearly show it: as long as the focus remains on cleanup rather than prevention, the plastic crisis will continue to escalate.

The stakes couldn’t be higher for the planet’s oceans, wildlife, and communities. Addressing the crisis will require more than promises—it will demand accountability, transparency, and a willingness to actually do something other than following profits.

“To fix this planetary health crisis, we need to address the underlying problems of hazardous chemical inputs in plastic manufacturing and the unbridled production of disposable plastics,” Aileen Lucero, a campaigner with EcoWaste Coalition in the Philippines, where the Alliance is funding projects, told Unearthed.