#plastic usage

[quanta-44]

Yes, of course it is a good thing to cut down on plastic use, walk to school and turn the lights off.

But we will never get anywhere with protecting the environment if big companies and governments don't take responsibility for their actions.

They contribute to climate change as much as many individual people trying to make a difference do, so it is only reasonable that they take their share of the responsibility of combatting climate change.

Especially as these companies and governments have the money and resources to make a big difference.

Yes, we as individuals can change things in the world by changing things in our lives, but we won't get very far without pressuring the big players to change.

And hey, I'm talking to you climate conscious person who calls people out on a regular basis over there, next time you are about to hassle a disabled person over their plastic usage, stop, consider your actions and go make a complaint to a big company instead. There are actually helpful ways to channel your concern for the environment.

[thoughtlessarse]

European food companies break their plastics promises | DW | 09.08.2022

Two-thirds of pledges to go greener on plastic fail or are dropped, a DW investigation has found. Here's how European food and drink compani

The French food giant Danone made an ambitious promise back in 2008: Within one year, 50% of the plastics used in the company's water bottles would be made from recycled materials. Danone's sustainability report called the measure "a lever for reducing packaging weight and decreasing CO2 emissions."

It would have been a step in the right direction in the fight against global plastics pollution. Plastic is not only one of the main products made from fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas: It's also one of the most enduring. Plastic bottles, for example, can take up to 450 years to break down. The resulting pieces of microplastics harm animals and humans alike — polluting oceans, soil and even the air. And the food and drink industry is one of the biggest plastics polluters in the world.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 79 million tons of plastic waste were released into the environment through terrestrial or aquatic leakage, open-pit burning or dumpsites in 2019. That represents over one-fifth of the global total.

Have companies followed through on promises to clean up their act? DW and the European Data Journalism Network researched some of Europe's biggest food and drink companies to find out.

Danone, for one, did not. By 2009, the company's target on recycled plastics had shifted: "The group aims to achieve 20-30% in 2011," its 2009 report reads. "And 50% eventually." When the company failed to meet that target, as well, it shifted the goal post again. And again. In 2020, Danone still used only 20% recycled PET in its water bottles worldwide. And, for 2025, 16 years after its first self-imposed deadline, Danone has set itself a familiar goal: 50% recycled plastics in water bottles.

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