The largest consumer product makers and retailers in the U.S. are doing a poor job of making their plastic packaging more responsible and financially supporting efforts to boost recycling, according to a new report from socially responsible investment advisory group As You Sow. Read More →
Read MoreUnilever scored highest out of the 50 large companies in a new report from the nonprofit As You Sow, but still only earned a grade of B–. PepsiCo, despite some experiments with packaging-free refill stations, earned a D+. Fifteen companies got failing grades, including Whole Foods, Tyson Foods, and Hershey’s. Read More →
MAKING THE GRADE — Corporate America has a long way to go to clean up its plastic problem, but there are some signs of progress in a new report out today from As You Sow, a shareholder advocacy group. Read More →
Read MoreEarlier this week, shareholders of Restaurant Brands International (QSR), the parent company of Tim Horton’s, Popeye’s Louisiana Chicken and Burger King, cast their ballots on two shareholder proposals – one on worker rights, and the other on pollution. Read More →
Read MoreUPDATE: April 15, 2020: As You Sow recently agreed to withdraw a shareholder proposal following an agreement by Republic Services to report new recycling information. Read More →
Read MoreRepublic Services Inc., Phoenix, has committed to publishing a report on how the company can improve efforts to increase plastics recovery and recycling to address environmental problems caused by plastic pollution, according to a news release from Berkeley, California-based nonprofit As You Sow. Read More →
Read More“Companies make these big goals. Years roll by, nothing happens or they miss it,” says Conrad MacKerron, senior vice president of the shareholder activist group As You Sow, which has filed shareholder proposals to push companies to increase their recycling efforts. “And then there’s really no penalty in a lot of cases, because people have moved on.” Read More →
Read More"We appreciate Yum's commitment to phase out foam containers globally as a significant corporate leadership action," Conrad MacKerron, senior vice president of As You Sow, said in a statement. "This is a win for oceans and marine life as foam packaging poses particular threats to wildlife." Read More →
Read MoreAs You Sow believes more organized, concerted action is needed by producer brands, recyclers, processors, regulators, and advocacy groups to dramatically increase levels of recycling, both to capture the embedded value of these materials, as well as to provide feedstock for the recycled content many brands now promise to use. Read More →
Read MoreA long-term goal is to introduce the cups into major chains. Conrad MacKerron, senior vice president for the shareholder advocacy nonprofit As You Sow, told Waste Dive the programs are "a key first step" toward shifting companies like Starbucks "away from single use packaging and towards reusables." He added "there will need to be a lot of market testing to study, encourage, and induce customer behavior change." Read More →
Read MoreAnother major petrochemical company has agreed to publicly report its plastic pellet pollution under mounting public pressure from an activist shareholders group. Read More →
Read MoreConrad MacKerron, senior vice president for As You Sow, told Waste Dive that with the announcement Starbucks has become "the biggest company to make a commitment of this type." As You Sow is not currently pushing any other companies on reusables, but is encouraging fast-food companies on "more preliminary steps," he said. Read More →
Read MoreStarbucks Corp. wants to move away from single-use packaging, including plastics, by 2030. Starbucks Corp. announced Jan. 21 it wants to make major moves away from single-use packaging, including plastics, as part of an effort to cut its carbon footprint and cut waste from its stores and manufacturing in half by 2030. Read More →
Read MoreIn 2018, the company committed to eliminate plastic straws worldwide by 2020 and also introduced a strawless lid. Last summer, Starbucks began working more closely with groups like As You Sow, said Conrad MacKerron, a senior vice president at As You Sow who helped lead the Starbucks campaign. Read More →
Read MoreIn the future, customers across the more than 70 countries with Starbucks locations might find that they’ll need to pay for a single-use cup, according to Conrad MacKerron, vice president of the shareholder advocacy group As You Sow. Read More →
Read MoreThe proposal won 44.5% of shareholder votes, but when the company did not fully respond, it was refiled in September for 2020. That led to a more productive dialogue with the company and the withdrawal of the shareholder proposal, As You Sow Senior Vice President Conrad MacKerron said in an interview. Read More →
Read MoreConrad MacKerron, senior vice president of the Berkeley, California-based environmental group As You Sow, said “Some transparency is better than no disclosure.” Read More →
Read MoreWashington — The plastics industry unveiled changes Dec. 13 to strengthen its voluntary Operation Clean Sweep program to reduce pellet pollution from its factories, but environmental groups monitoring the issue questioned industry self-regulation and called for a tough zero discharge standard.
Read MoreBlue Bottle's initial pivot to compostables and new moves towards further waste reduction reflects growing trends as companies acknowledge consumer demands.
Read MoreIn the climactic scene of “Toy Story 3,” Woody, Buzz Lightyear and the rest of the crew narrowly escape death when a remote-controlled claw lifts them from an incinerator just before flames engulf them.
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