Concern over plastic marine pollution and waste among institutional investors has grown sharply over the last 18 months, according to the organizer of a $1 trillion campaign to pressure major consumer brands to reduce their plastics use.
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Although this announcement from Mondelez is an ambitious sustainability initiative, the CPG maker said it has already made its packaging more environmentally friendly. The company said most of its packaging is currently recyclable, since about 75% of it is glass, paper or metal, and about 70% of the paper-based packaging comes from recycled sources. Oreo packages in the U.S. were also made 23% thinner, reducing about 1.5 million kilograms of cartons used annually. These efforts could indicate that the brand is on track to follow through with its lofty goals.
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California has fired another volley in the plastic-straw wars, enacting a law that bars sit-down restaurants from offering straws to diners unless they specifically request them. The move follows total bans on plastic straws in cities including San Francisco; Malibu, California; Seattle; and Miami Beach, Florida.
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Increasingly, it seems like it’s supporting expanding bottle deposit programs. But big beverage companies want any solution but that.
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In a Fortune op-ed touting her company's use of recycled content and $55 million investment in recycling over the past 10 years, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi also recognized "that these efforts are simply not enough." Groups such as Greenpeace and As You Sow, were quick to release statements about why they don't believe this latest investment is enough either.
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A proposal by advocacy group As You Sow (Oakland, CA) was presented and voted on by shareholders in March asking Starbucks to phase out plastic straws. It received less than 30% support, but As You Sow considered it a victory.
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It’s estimated that more than 500 million plastic straws are used per day in the U.S. But that number could be about to plunge as big corporations like Starbucks (SBUX) start to eliminate them.
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“Starbucks taught the world how to drink coffee, and I believe that this commitment will help teach the world how to embrace sustainable business practices, starting with the plastic straw,” actor Adrian Grenier, Lonely Whale co-founder, said Monday.
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With Starbucks responsible for using an estimated 2 billion plastic straws annually, according to the nonprofit As You Sow, the company’s commitment to finding a way to reduce its reliance on them sends a strong signal to other businesses.
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Conrad MacKerron, senior vice president of As You Sow, said on Monday that he was glad Starbucks had decided to do away with plastic straws. He added that public officials also need to improve composting programs to handle the increase in biodegradable straws Starbucks is proposing to use.
“A big systemic change needs to happen,” he said. “This kind of material wouldn’t break down in your backyard compost bin.”
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A group of 25 investors managing more than $1 trillion in assets are demanding that Nestle SA, PepsiCo Inc., Procter & Gamble Co. and Unilever NV reduce their use of plastic packaging, calling it environmentally damaging.
The initiative was organized by As You Sow, a nonprofit shareholder advocacy group that pushes companies to act responsibly.
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As You Sow is pleased to announce the launch of the Plastic Solutions Investor Alliance, an international coalition of investors that will engage publicly traded consumer goods companies on the threat posed by plastic waste and pollution. Twenty-five institutional investors from four countries with a combined $1 trillion of assets under management have signed a declarationciting plastic pollution as a clear corporate brand risk and pledging to interact with leading companies to find solutions through new corporate commitments, programs, and policies.
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In 2017, As You Sow, the nation's non-profit leader in shareholder advocacy, called Starbucks out for its single-use plastic cups, shortcomings with previous sustainability promises, and failure to phase out their signature green plastic straws.
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“The support for change is overwhelming,” said Austin Wilson, environmental health program manager at As You Sow. “It’s an important sign that a company’s investors are looking for a certain course of action.”
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“I’m not sure you need to look at developing dramatic materials,” says Conrad Mackerron, senior vice president of As You Sow. “We’ve got to figure out how to really fix the recycling system or really fix the composting system from that side. That’s much higher levels of investment. They need to go to their peers to get them to all give $10 or $20 billion. That would move it.”
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“Starbucks cups are pollution, and people have had enough of the broken promises.”
Campaigners want to stop the company urging its shareholders to vote down a sustainability proposal by shareholder advocacy group As You Sow.
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"This is a big victory, and it's taken a long time. Dunkin agreed way back in 2010, in theory, to phase out [foam cups], but it took until today for them to actually give a date and to say that they are going to switch to paper... We're talking about some very positive impacts on world oceans in terms of reducing plastic pollution," said Conrad MacKerron, Senior Vice President of As You Sow.
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“They said they had some hoops to jump through,” says Conrad Mackerron, the director of the waste and recycling program at As You Sow. “Just before the holiday, they indicated that they were going to be able to do this. I said, ‘That’s great, but you need to put it on paper.’ But they followed through in the same [way] as when they stuck to their word back in 2012 when they stopped the foam use in the U.S.”
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McDonald’s is expected to announce a packaging and recycling initiative later this week, said Conrad MacKerron, a senior vice president of As You Sow. “We do appreciate what McDonald’s has done,” he said. “It’s taken a long time, but better late than never.”
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As You Sow, a shareholder advocacy group that promotes social and corporate environmental responsibility headquartered in Oakland, California, has refiled a resolution with McDonald’s Corp., Oak Brook, Illinois, for 2018 urging the company to assess the environmental impact of its polystyrene use in beverage cups and food trays. The same proposal was voted on by shareholders earlier this year and received the support of nearly one-third of shares voted.
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