So documentation has emerged that plastics companies knew all along that plastic recycling would not work and was a sham, and they promoted it and put "recycle" logos on all their products to make people feel better about buying single use plastics, since they were starting to resist it.

We've known for a few years that recycling wasn't happening. This became clear when east Asian countries started refusing to accept the recycling we were sending them -- now we know it was all a lie to begin with. And it's recorded on tape.

So why doesn't every city that had an expensive recycling program sue the plastics industry over this? Look at the immense costs:

• The cost of the plastic recycling programs in every city and commercial building
• The effort by every citizen to sort plastic and in many cases to clean it before recycling
• Extra fees paid by waste customers to the pickup companies to handled sorted bins
• All those CRV and other deposits aimed at recycling. (They are also aimed at preventing litter which remains worthwhile.)

Now apparently clear plastic water bottles can be and are recycled, but almost none of the coloured plastic food containers go into anything but landfill.

The class action suit from cities, businesses with recycle bins and individuals should wipe out all the companies who are on the record as knowing about the sham. The penalties can easily be hundreds of billions of dollars.

But will it happen? Nobody seems to talk much about it.