We’ve all seen them: misleading headlines, misquoted studies, and viral posts that get the facts mostly wrong. In Episode 11, we took on 10 of the most common myths about plastics and packaging, some of which are so widespread that people have stopped questioning them. That’s where we come in.
We’re not here to defend bad design or poor waste management. But we are here to bring some clarity to the conversation and to remind everyone that when it comes to packaging, nothing is black and white.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or our website as we unpack the biggest myths and half-truths surrounding plastic and sustainability. Wondering what kind of packaging myths we’re talking about here? Read on for a sneak peek of five of the ten we tackled.
We started off strong with this one. This is the kind of sweeping statement that sounds simple, but ignores reality. Yes, unmanaged plastic waste is a problem. But that’s not the same thing as saying the material is bad.
In fact, we consistently find that plastic outperforms other materials when it comes to sustainability. As Mike explains, "I'd like to look at greenhouse gases. I think that if you look at some other packaging materials and mediums, you can find many, many examples of higher greenhouse gas effects — in paper, in aluminum, certainly in glass — that far outweigh the greenhouse gas emissions of plastic. The second thing I would say is that the most environmentally friendly and sustainable plastic is the plastic that's recycled. If we look at that and if we concentrate on designing for recyclability and increasing recycling rates, it's an incredibly sustainable material."
And Jonathan took that a step further. As he says, "People that are out there pushing these myths when plastic has done such amazing things for us as a human race, giving us a safe food chain, giving us access to medicine and pharmaceuticals."
Our world has been built on the benefits of plastic. Declaiming the material as evil is ineffective and ultimately untrue. There’s nuance here, and we need to talk about it.
This one is everywhere. You hear it in legislation, marketing claims, and consumer conversations. But when you dig into the data and really review Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs), it just doesn’t hold up.
Materials like glass and aluminum may be recyclable, but they’re far heavier and more energy-intensive to produce and transport. Natalie reminded us that a glass bottle can weigh up to 40 times more than a PET bottle, leading to more fuel use and emissions throughout the supply chain.
Swapping to another material like metal or paper often feels good in the moment, but without a real understanding of full-system impacts, they risk doing more harm than good.
This one’s tricky because the word "biodegradable" sounds harmless. Who wouldn’t want packaging that just melts away?
But as the team explained, most biodegradable plastics actually need very specific conditions to break down. This might include something like high heat and controlled composting environments. And those facilities are rare. So what happens to the biodegradable materials instead? They end up with everything else — in a landfill, just like regular plastic.
We also got into the difference between biodegradable and compostable and how that distinction gets lost in marketing. The point is: if the material doesn’t break down where people think it will, we’re not solving the problem. We’re just making it harder to understand.
We’ve all heard this one too many times. And it gets more frustrating every time we hear it.
Is the recycling system perfect? No. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. We talked about how recycling infrastructure is improving, how demand for post-consumer resin is growing, and how brands are designing packaging specifically for recyclability down the line.
Jonathan shares a hopeful message for the present and future of recycling: "We know it can be done. There are other countries that do an outstanding job of recycling. America is a very big country, and there's a lot of inconsistency still, especially when it comes to consumer recycling. But we've come such a long way. Keep the faith, keep doing it, keep recycling."
The real issue isn’t whether recycling is possible. We know it’s possible. The issue is whether we’ve built the systems to support it. The good news? We’re getting there.
This one sparked a strong reaction from all of us. Because, let’s be honest, it’s easy to blame plastic. It’s visible. It’s familiar. And it’s used in everything.
But blaming plastic for the waste problem ignores the real causes: behavior, infrastructure, and mismanagement.
We shared examples of cities that addressed litter with better waste systems, not bans. And we looked at how cultural attitudes (and smart policy) make a huge difference. Bottom line: if you don’t fix behavior, banning plastic won’t fix the problem.
One of the biggest threads running through this episode wasn’t just about materials. It was about perception.
Why does plastic get villainized when other materials get a pass? Why are we still making policy decisions based on emotion instead of science?
Plastics are such a part of life that we’ve begun to overlook their value. It was put into the world as cheap, common material, so people tend to treat it like trash. But that’s changing. Today, plastic is being designed with longevity, recyclability, and performance in mind. And it’s time we start treating it like the asset it is.
We only covered half the myths here, and we saved some of the best for the full episode. If you want to hear what we had to say about ocean pollution, microplastics, reusable vs. single-use, and whether all plastics are the same (spoiler: they’re not), you’ll have to go listen.
So head over to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or our website and get caught up on all 10 packaging myths.
Until next time: stay smart, stay curious, and keep getting a little crazy about packaging.