>> SULLIVAN: We found
a collection of internal plastic
industry documents...
Thank you.
(voiceover): ...about this
period of time, when the
industry was in the crosshairs
of the environmental movement,
and plastics were under attack.
As we continued reporting, we
found even more internal
documents and court filings, and
spoke with over a dozen industry
insiders, including three top
executives who represented the
big plastic producers and agreed
to talk publicly for the first
time.
Back then, one of the vice
presidents at the Society of the
Plastics Industry was Lew
Freeman.
He now heads a local
environmental coalition, but he
remembers a pivotal board
meeting in the late '80s, when
the industry was worried about
its public image.
>> The vice president of the
DuPont Company pulled me aside
and said, "You, you guys better
get up to Wilmington.
There's dissatisfaction about
what's going on with the
solid-waste issue."
We took a trek up to Wilmington,
and this one DuPont executive,
he said, "I think if we had five
million dollars"-- which seemed
like a lot of money then.
>> SULLIVAN: Five million?
>> "If we had five million
dollars, we could, we could, we
could solve this problem."
>> SULLIVAN: They created the
Council for Solid Waste
Solutions, drawn from their
ranks of big oil and
petrochemical companies that
made plastic, like Amoco,
Chevron, Dow, and Exxon.
The group had a plan and turned
to a veteran of the industry,
Ron Liesemer, to execute it.
>> They wanted to know, was I
interested in being the guy who
actually made recycling happen
across the U.S.?
>> SULLIVAN: I mean, you got
handed this task...
>> Yeah.
>> SULLIVAN: ...to recycle
plastic in the United States.
>> In the United States.
Literally me.
I had no staff.
But I had millions of dollars to
do what I felt was necessary.
>> In a highly controversial
action, one county in New York
State has voted to ban all
packaging made of two kinds of
plastic.
>> SULLIVAN: It was a critical
moment.
A growing backlash was
threatening the future of
plastic.
>> In what may be part of a
national trend, the City Council
of Saint Paul, Minnesota, voted
to outlaw the use of polystyrene
plastics.
>> SULLIVAN: Liesemer was sent
to Minnesota on an urgent
mission.
Brand-name companies that used
plastic were facing bans on
their products.
>> There was an attitude that if
your product was not recycled,
then it should not be in the
marketplace.
So, it was up to us in the
plastics industry to solve this
problem so that they could
continue to package their
products in plastic.
>> SULLIVAN: And Liesemer found
a solution.
To appease government officials,
the industry funded a local
recycling pilot project.
>> The industry attitude was,
"We'll set this up and get it
going, but if the public wants
it, they are going to have to
pay for it."
>> SULLIVAN: The plastic bans
were averted.
Do you think that they took a
lesson away from how to fight
the bans?
>> Oh, yes.
It was, "We need to be doing
things."
>> SULLIVAN: Like what?
>> Don't wait until legislation
appears.
>> SULLIVAN: You're saying
pre-empt it.
>> Yes, do it first.
And we did.
>> SULLIVAN: Did you feel like
they cared more about selling
plastic than they did about
making recycling work?
>> Making recycling work was a
way to keep their products in
the marketplace.
>> SULLIVAN: It was a way to
sell plastic.
>> Yes.
It's a win-win situation.
You get recycling going, that
has its benefits, and it
improves the image of the
material.
