Eleven packaging firms spent a combined 14.6 million on lobbying against bottle-deposit laws in four states, while their own reports promised to collect more than they sold.

None of this appears in their sustainability pages. We found it in registration forms, committee testimony and the expense lines of two industry associations, all from public records.

One association paid a former regulator, a name we are not yet allowed to print, to write the model bill that three of those states later adopted almost word for word.