Recycling Old Tricks: State AGs Probe Plastics Industry Collusion In Latest ESG Probe

This month, the attorneys general of Florida, Texas, Iowa, Nebraska, and Montana sent letters to various environmental groups expressing "collective concern" about potentially anti-competitive recycling practices. The letters, sent to the Consumer Goods Forum, the Green Blue Institute and the U.S. Plastics Pact, vary slightly depending on the recipient, but make the same general allegations.

First, the states identify certain environmental goals that the environmental groups set for their respective members (e.g., general collaborative efforts to reduce plastics use or specific targets to reduce plastic packaging by a certain percentage by benchmark years). The states note that these goals aim to ensure "stakeholders ... artificially change the output and quality of their goods and services in a uniform manner," in possible violation of antitrust laws.