Model and Strategy
Oceans and ocean life are under siege from plastic waste. We aim to stem the flow at its source: the endless tsunami of single-use plastics and plastic packaging from global corporations.
Ocean plastic is by many accounts one of the most significant environmental challenges facing the world today. Plastics degrade into small and minute particles that harm and kill marine animals – and at the minute level, plastics are virtually impossible to clean up.
The equivalent of a full garbage truck of plastic is dumped in the ocean every minute. Scientists found nearly 18 tons of plastic on one of the world’s most remote islands, an uninhabited coral atoll in the South Pacific. Just this April, a sperm whale was found with 64 pounds of plastic in its stomach, likely its cause of death.
Without action, the ocean will likely contain more plastic than fish by 2050.
The corporations that put single use plastics and plastic packaging into commerce without regard or responsibility for its recyclability or recycling systems MUST be part of the solution. Shareholders are a strong, powerful force for creating lasting change in corporate behavior – As You Sow uses that power, to create that change.
Impact
In its Issue Brief, Battery Powered notes that companies “…control key levers for promoting sustainable consumption. A shift in policy and practice from a Starbucks or Unilever to reduce plastic use, increase recycling, or source more sustainable products can alter the market for millions of consumers, making a significant impact.”
Exactly.
We’ve already made great progress with both these brands. In March, Starbucks unveiled a $10 million investment in designing a paper cup that can recycled or composted globally – just as we were tallying a strong vote on our shareholder resolution asking it to take aggressive action on packaging reuse and recycling, and phase out plastic straws. In 2017, Unilever agreed to make all its packaging recyclable by 2025.
We now aim to shift the policies and practices of a dozen more large consumer goods companies. We seek commitments to policies that will significantly strengthen recycling programs and directly, significantly, and permanently reduce sources of plastic pollution. Such shifts will affect millions of consumers.
As we press companies from within, as investors and shareholders, our colleagues at Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy project are making similar asks on recyclability, reduced use, and improved recycling, using the principles of the Circular Economy. The MacArthur NGO has begun to build societal support through European Commission and World Economic Forum (Davos) policy processes. These are complementary inside/outside strategies that will exert considerable influence on consumer brands, driving drastic reduction of plastic waste flowing into oceans.
In Battery Powered’s words, the kind of shifts in corporate practices we seek – and achieve – “can alter the market for millions of consumers, making a significant impact.”
Leadership
-
Andrew Behar
CEO
-
Conrad MacKarron
Senior Vice President