In a brightly-lit room in Houston, Texas , environmental activist Malachi Key is searching through a pile of trash. He picks up a used chicken salad box, which like the other waste in the heap is being sent off for recycling , and slips a tracking device inside. In 2022, the city introduced a program that promised to give up to 90% all plastics, even those that are hard to recycle, a new lease on life. It's a significant claim, given that the US average is less than 10%.  But Key said the scheme, which is a partnership with plastic industry leaders like ExxonMobil, LyondellBasell and Cyclyx International, is "too good to be true." Hence the tracking. This is not the first time he and his fellow activists with environment nonprofit Air Alliance Houston have played sleuth. In the past year and a half, they've counted 14 times when their plastic trash was in fact moved to a third-party storage site and simply left there.…