It sounds simple, even elegant: for every unit of plastic a company produces, it funds the recovery of an equal amount somewhere else.
One in, one out. Problem solved.
But what if the very idea of “balancing out” plastic is the problem?
Plastic neutrality has entered the chat as the latest feel-good fix in the sustainability playbook. It promises us that consumption can continue—as long as someone, somewhere, picks up the pieces. But when you follow the offsets, trace the credits, and look past the polished campaigns, a more complicated story begins to unfold.
The Offset Illusion
Offsetting is often used not to change behavior, but to justify it.
— Michael E. Mann
In theory, plastic neutrality works like carbon offsets: calculate your footprint, fund a cleanup, slap a badge on your website.
But in practice?
- Who verifies the cleanup?
- Where does the plastic go afterward?
- And does any of this reduce the production happening upstream?
Offsets may remove plastic from a beach in Mumbai, but they don’t slow down the extrusion lines in New Jersey. Instead, they offer something else: permission.
Permission to produce. Permission to delay. Permission to keep the machine running, wrapped in the language of responsibility.
The Geography of Guilt
Most plastic neutrality programs are implemented in countries with limited waste infrastructure—because that’s where the plastic ends up, and because cleanup is cheaper there.
So we get this strange moral arithmetic:
- Corporations in the Global North produce massive volumes of plastic
- Plastic waste floods the Global South
- Then companies pay those same communities to clean it up in exchange for credit
We outsource the harm, and then outsource the cleanup. And we call it even.
But is it?
The Numbers Game
Plastic neutrality schemes are based on numbers—how much plastic goes out, how much is “neutralized.” But the math gets fuzzy fast:
- Some “neutralized” plastic is incinerated
- Some is downcycled into products that can’t be recycled again
- Some credits are double-counted across multiple schemes
Even the best-case scenario doesn’t slow the tide. It just counts the buckets.
What We Avoid When We Offset
Plastic neutrality lets us avoid harder questions:
- Why are we producing so much plastic in the first place?
- Why is it cheaper to offset than to redesign?
- Why do we accept that consumption must always increase?
It shifts the narrative from reduction to compensation. From change to choreography. From systems thinking to spreadsheet ethics.
The Real Neutrality Test
Here’s a thought experiment: If a company were forced to stop producing plastic until it could fully reclaim what it had already made—would it survive?
Would neutrality still be appealing if it required transformation instead of transaction?
And if not, then maybe we’re not neutral at all. We’re just very good at saying we are.
The danger isn’t in doing too little. It’s in convincing ourselves we’ve done enough.
– Critical MindShift
Further Reading
Want to understand how plastic offsets, certifications, and branding can obscure more than they reveal? These articles and books pull back the curtain:
Smoke and Mirrors: The Realities of Plastic Credits and Offsetting
This report, developed in collaboration with GAIA and SourceMaterial, delves into the significant flaws within plastic offsetting schemes.
Key insights include:
• A substantial portion of plastic credits are generated through incineration rather than recycling, raising environmental concerns.
• The concept of ‘additionality’—ensuring that offset projects lead to new, not pre-existing, environmental benefits—is often not met.
• The lack of transparency and accountability in these schemes allows for potential greenwashing by corporations.
Books:
The following books are linked to Amazon.com for your convenience. If you decide to purchase through these links, we may earn a small commission — at no extra cost to you.
Plastic Unlimited: How Corporations Are Fuelling the Ecological Crisis and What We Can Do About It [amazon.com]
By Alice Mah
How corporate messaging shaped plastic’s dominance—then greenwashed its consequences.
The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet [amazon.com]
By Michael E. Mann
A powerful critique of delay tactics disguised as solutions, with implications for both climate and plastic policy.
View on Amazon
This article is part of the Plastic Truths series.
Explore all articles at our Plastic Truths overview page.
Image acknowledgment:
We’re grateful to the talented photographers and designers on Unsplash for their beautiful, free-to-use images. The image on this page incorporates a photo by OCG Saving The Ocean, which was then combined into a custom graphic using Canva. You can explore more of their work here: https://unsplash.com/@oceancleanupgroup.
