Read Blog

Read blog The latest on plastic pollution

THE BAGMONSTER LOSES IN SOUTH CAROLINA AND MARIN AND, AND, AND---

By Stiv Wilson on September 16, 2011

Follow Me on Pinterest

Well, it's been a devastating week for The old BagMonster indeed.  Here's the deal:  Reusable bag maker and 5 Gyres friend, ChicoBag was sued by plastic bag recyclers, Hilex Poly, Super Bag, and Advance Poly for statistics ChicoBag had made on their website about plastic pollution.  The three bag manufacturers stated that ChicoBag's claims had did 'irreparable harm' to their respective brands for quoting information from the EPA and NOAA on their website ( I LOVE THIS-- THE EPA! NOAA!).  Sure, some of the data is a bit outdated, but the sentiment is still the same---  I mean c'mon, even if the recycling rate for plastic bags is 14% vs 12% as stated, does it really matter? Well, read on, and you'll see it's much lower than either of those percentages and we can thank the industry for blowing off their feet with a shotgun for that!  

What started as a traditional ploy by big business to silence smaller business (especially one like ChicoBag which was founded precisely to address the plastic pollution problem) backfired, SERIOUSLY.  And this should ring as a word of caution to industry--  don't mess with a passionate, smart, and organized grassroots base just because we're undercapitalized compared to you.  

The PR for the plastic bag industry was bad.  Like real bad by any metric you judge it.  In city hall testimonies all over the country, where lobbyists from industry were stating that their product wasn't a big deal, were countered by 100s of activists all around the country chanting, 'You're going to listen to these guys? They're suing a small reusable bag maker, trying to put them out of business.' Well, from personal experience with policymakers, this lawsuit made for a sour taste in the elected mouths.  Kind of hard to pretend like you're the good guys when you sue small companies with aggressive SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) suits. Yeah, backfired big time.  I'm sure some people over at Hilex, Advance and Super got canned this week for suggesting such a stupid move. They'll spin this loss too, but make no mistake, they got their A@##%$%%! kicked.  

What resulted was a big win for ChicoBag and the Anti-Single Use Plastic Movement at large. Chico challenged the three plastic bag makers about their recycling rate statistic (12%). Well Super and Advance didn't like that so much, feeling the sharks circle, and dropped the suit. That left Hilex, pants down, having to admit that this statistic was fabricated---  it's a number based on the TOTAL amount of HDPE they recycle (including films and wraps) but not just bags. This means that the sum total of bag recycling is certainly much, much lower! Take that BagMonster. Ultimately, with the aid of 25,000 petition signatures asking Hilex to drop the suit, they in fact did. Or 'settled' as they will say.

For all the money and PR spin that industry spent trying to hurt a little guy, they ended up shooting themselves in the foot with an RPG, and I think the preliminary ruling in Marin, California earlier this week by Judge Lynn Duryee sums up how industry spin efforts are going:

As the county points out in its opposition, "In the pantheon of lost causes, defending the plastic grocery bag would seem to be right up there with supporting smoking on planes or the murder of puppies. The ubiquitous thin white bag has moved squarely beyond eyesore into the realm of public nuisance, a symbol of waste and excess and the incremental destruction of nature." In jurisdictions with a marine environment, such as Marin, plastic bags are especially damaging to the environment. Plastic bags have no recycling market. It takes 500 years for them to decompose. And they have created a major solid waste issue for Marin. It was therefore a reasonable legislative and regulatory choice for Marin County, after years of study, to ban plastic bags while imposing a fee on paper bags. Such a regulation assures "the maintenance, restoration, enhancement or protection of the environment" which also does not have a "reasonable probability of a significant effect on the environment due unusual circumstances" In reviewing the County's legislative actions, the court finds no abuse of discretion. The count appropriately concluded that the ordinance is exempt pursuant to Guidelines sections 15307 and 15308.

Yikes.

Crack a beer folks! But watch out---  industry is going to comeback with a new strategy soon.  We'll be here. Constant pressure, endlessly applied.  

The Plastic Promise

By taking this pledge, you can make a difference.
Take and Share the Plastic Promise

Tags

       

1 Comments

  1. Joe Morris Dec 24, 2011 2:48 PM If you are serious about solving the plastic bag problem, then I can do it, guaranteed. My way is simple, sensible, susatainable, and effective. To solve the problem, you must understand the problem, and I do. On the other hand, if you just hate plastic and want to blame someone or something, then you are simply unrealistic and barking at the moon. Lets get real and do something meaningful and effective. Seriously, stop all the useless rhetoric and pseudo- intellectual intercourse and get to the facts, truth, and heart of the issue- REDUCE, REUSE,RECYCLE ..AND DEGRADE. Duh........it ain't rocket science, its economics...... Joe

Write Comment

Name:
Email:
Comment:
Verify:
Keep up to date with what's happening now!