The plastics industry spent decades convincing consumers that throwing used products stamped with the “chasing arrows” symbol into a curbside bin meant they would be recycled.

Now, amid growing awareness that many of those items never get reprocessed, the industry is championing a pair of proposals in Congress that would give misleading recycling claims the support of federal law.

On the surface, the two bipartisan House bills promise transparency for consumers by establishing national standards for recycling and recycled content labels.

But the legislation — promoted by oil, chemical and packaging companies that spend millions of dollars lobbying Congress each year — would forbid states from setting stricter requirements. That would neutralize efforts like California’s “truth in labeling” law, which bans the chasing arrow symbol on plastic products that contain toxic chemicals or that can’t realistically be recycled.

One of the measures would endorse a controversial form of “mass balance” accounting that allows companies to claim a product contains recycled content when virtually none of it came from reprocessed plastic. Two years ago, a ProPublica investigation exposed the misleading, mathematical sleight of hand used in that type of mass balance, which the Biden administration subsequently prohibited for specific products.

Both bills, which have gained momentum and could face a full House vote after the midterm elections, “are peak greenwashing,” Rachel Fullmer, a staff attorney on toxics and environmental health at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in an email. They “champion deceptive, anti-consumer policies which would result in an increase in plastic production and plastic waste incineration, all while hiding behind the false brand of ‘recycling.’”

Experts say the best solution to the plastics crisis wreaking havoc on human health and the environment is to make and use less of the material; recycling remains a marginal solution at best.

The bills tackle a growing threat to the industry, as several states have proposed or passed laws that require manufacturers to more honestly acknowledge the challenges of recycling plastic. Those measures could force companies to spend money changing their packaging or labels.

The Consumer Brands Association, which represents the packaged goods industry including Amazon, PepsiCo and Land O’Lakes, praised the House bills.

These proposals “work in tandem to reduce consumer confusion and plastic waste while providing much-needed clarity to support new domestic innovations and investments,” the organization wrote to the leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in July. They “demonstrate that consumer protection and recycling-focused efforts go hand-in-hand with promoting affordability and manufacturing investments, and we strongly encourage your support for both bills.”

The association spent $2.4 million in the first half of 2026 lobbying on these bills and other issues, according to data from OpenSecrets. In September, the two recycling bills cleared the House committee.

Five Democratic House members, including three from Texas, are among the 13 co-sponsors of the bill that endorses mass balance accounting. The other has 19 co-sponsors, including one Democrat.

A few weeks ago, Sen. John Curtis, a Utah Republican, introduced the mass balance bill in the Senate; it currently has no other co-sponsors.

Sheen of Recyclability

Consumers have long been confused by the chasing arrows symbol on many plastic containers. The label was created in 1970 to encourage paper recycling. The plastics industry began placing it on its products in the 1980s to quell public outrage over plastic pollution.

The symbol gave plastic the sheen of recyclability, even though most items cannot be reprocessed due to economic or technical barriers. The Environmental Protection Agency estimated that 8.7% of U.S. plastic waste was recycled in 2018; the........

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