Plastics’ Offsets Point to Next Frontier in Dubious Green Claims (1)

Some of the world’s biggest consumer companies are boasting a new environmental claim: net zero plastics, or “plastic neutral,” by which they mean their businesses don’t add to plastic pollution.

Like the more familiar “carbon neutral,” it’s not as simple as it sounds, because of course companies haven’t wiped plastic from their manufacturing process. Instead, like CO2 emitters, some companies are turning to offsets, a credit which, in this case, is supposed to represent a ton of plastic waste collected and processed by a third party elsewhere in the world.

As of now, the market for plastic offsets is ...