Comment to ZipLock Bags

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I wrote to the ZipLock bags comment form this morning:

Dear Ziplock Bags,
I am writing as both a concerned citizen and a fan of Ziplocks. The bags are handy and very much can be done with them to keep foods, activities, and precious items preserved and safe.

I’m sure you know what a scourge single use plastics is having on our beautiful earth.
Please do not discount this concern. Single use plastics are soiling and poisoning, polluting and littering our waterways, wildlife, community spaces, and natural settings. Please, please become part of the solution and not part of the problem.

You COULD become part of the solution by collecting up or creating a market for post consumer waste. You could use this post consumer waste as raw materials for your bags. You COULD make your bags out of a high content of post consumer waste. The more you create a market for and use these materials in your products, the more likely they will be disposed of properly and energetically collected up instead of ending up in landfills or slowly degrading in our waterways to poison us all with micro plastics. Yuck.

Please, please become a leader in this.
Please.
Thank You,
Emily Gleichenhaus
Arlington, VA
Project PUT: Pick Up Trash
Every little PUT counts
http://ProjectPUT.org
@ProjectPUT (Facebook & Twitter)

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6/20/2018
Kind response from SC Johnson company:

consumerproducts@scj.com

To emleatha@att.net

Today at 9:00 AM

Hi Emily,
Thanks for getting in touch about Ziploc® brand Bags. Please know, we share your commitment to the environment. For this reason, we’re continually evaluating our packages to downsize them whenever possible. As a direct result of this effort, many of our products have undergone changes to their packaging in order to reflect our stance. We deeply appreciate how you share our passion, and I made sure to pass your comments along to the appropriate people in our company. Furthermore, it might interest you to know that Ziploc® brand bags can be recycled since they’re made from Polyethylene Plastic Resin #4. You can take them to any retail location that accepts plastic shopping/grocery bags for recycling (like Walmart) and they’ll recycle them for you. Additionally, the cartons our bags come in are 100% recycled paperboard with a minimum of 35% post consumer recycled paperboard. We want you to feel good about your decision when you purchase our product; if you have anymore questions or comments we welcome your reply.

Regards,
Amber
Consumer Relationship Center
SC Johnson, A Family Company
USA  1-800-558-5252  |  scjohnson.comCanada  1-800-558-5566  |  scjohnson.ca

Reference Number: 019150957A

Received: 06/11/18, 08:50:42From: emleatha@att.net

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6/20/2018
My response to the response:

Thank you Amber!
Please know that I noticed already and praise that the paperboard product packaging is comprised of post consumer waste. This is good and an important standard to continues.

I also understand that the products themselves are recyclable. My family reuses the bags as many times and for as many purposes as possible to before discarding them in the bag of recyclable bags.

My MAIN concern was not addressed by your nice note above, however. I’m proposing that the Ziplock bags themselves should be manufactured with post consumer waste plastics. The bags could (and should, please, to create a market for these materials) be manufactured from post consumer plastics from recycle centers or those extracted out of the ocean. Some of these plastics could come, say, from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. I’d be willing to bet you that MANY Ziplock products could be found there in that patch, in landfills (even 100 years hence), in sewers, gutters, lakes, streams, and just about anywhere you can find garbage. If it is true that SC Johnson Company is passionate about the environment (and not just lying to say so to give me a warm fuzzy feeling from a cordial reply to my original email) then SC Johnson will work to require Ziplock bags to begin manufacture with post consumer plastics as a raw material.

Thanks,
Arlington, VA
Project PUT: Pick Up Trash
Every little PUT counts
http://ProjectPUT.org
@ProjectPUT (Facebook & Twitter)

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Recycle Markers at Crayola

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This is a wonderful thing.
Crayola Colorcycle
Recycles old markers!
Here is the link:
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4/3/2018, Another Note to Starbucks about Recycling

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Note I just submitted to the Starbucks CONTACT US form, per recycling of their coffee bags (PS: you can’t recycle their coffee bags):

Dear Starbucks,

I just Googled “How to recycle Starbucks coffee bags,” and found this link: https://www.starbucks.com/responsibil…/environment/recycling
While I appreciate what is written there and that recycling depends on many factors and many of those factors are complicated and irritating, I’m really NOT willing to give you a pass on it. And, I don’t think Starbucks does nearly a good enough job on the recycling efforts.

For one thing, those layered foil and plastic coffee bags are not recyclable. Those bags do a good job containing the coffee, but does it REALLY seem right to you that a human being in 300 years will be able to go to a landfill and find that same coffee bag that was used to keep for coffee fresh for a relatively short period of time. Make your coffee bags recyclable. And make them from 100% post consumer waste.

You say in Europe, your plastic cups are comprised of 50% PCW, why not make those cups of 100% PCW EVERYWHERE? Or, make them biodegradable.

And not just the packaging for the product to consumer. You mention in the article that most of the waste generated is done so BEHIND the counter. Then do the same behind the counter. Demand that your suppliers package their products in packaging that is made of 100% post consumer waste and that that packaging is recyclable or biodegradable. Starbucks is a huge corporation. If you tell your suppliers what you want, they will provide it to you, or, you can be sure, some other company that wants your business will do it instead.

And provide PAPER straws. I love straws, but plastic straws are an environmental scourge. Have you seen this video:

This could just as easily have been a Starbucks straw as anyone else’s.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE, STARBUCKS! YOU CAN DO IT! And you can then take credit for it. If you make these changes, you could then brag about being part of the solution instead of being one of the biggest contributors to the problem.

It would take corporate WILL and DETERMINATION, PERSISTENCE and TENACITY. But, if you wanted to, YOU COULD do it. So do it!

Come on! I know it can be done.

Do it.

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Project PUT: Pick Up Trash
Every little PUT counts
ProjectPUT.org
@ProjectPUT (Facebook & Twitter)

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4/3/2018
Response from Starbucks within just an hour or so:

Hello Emily,

Thank you for contacting Starbucks. I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughtful feedback. We are continually evaluating our commitments and how best to provide our customers the information they need to make informed decisions about their food and beverage choices.

Emily, I am glad to learn that there’s still people out there fighting to help our mother earth. Starbucks is committed to significantly reducing the waste our stores generate – especially when it comes to recycling.

We know this is important to our customers, to us and our planet. In fact, we get more customer comments about recycling than any other environmental issue – especially when it comes to our cups.

To learn more about our work in recycling, please visit https://www.starbucks.com/responsibility/environment/recycling.

Thanks again for writing us. If you ever have any questions or concerns in the future, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Sincerely,
Luis F.
Starbucks Customer Care

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What are they thinking?

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I live in Arlington, VA, USA and there are parts of our city that are littered. Time has come for Litter Laws which must be vigorously enforced.

How is garbage strewn in beautiful places acceptable to anyone? And what is going through the mind of a person who litters? Why?

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Be Engaged! Changes Will Get Made!

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If we could get people to WRITE companies about their unacceptable/wasteful packaging and also to make a few simple changes (bring your own cups to the coffee shop or your own bags to the grocery), it would make a big difference. If enough customers demand a change, companies will change. Consumers need to be ENGAGED and ACTIVE to demand changes and make changes themselves. It’s really not that difficult. And big improvements could be made quickly. It’s a matter of putting priorities into action.

Project PUT: Pick Up Trash

(Facebook & Twitter)

http://ProjectPUT.org

 

Comment about Starbucks’ irresponsible, polluting product packaging submitted to Starbucks Customer Service Contact Us form

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I wrote the following comment to Starbucks this morning after looking at my sack of Starbucks ground coffee bags.  I’d been saving them up since i thought these could be taken to a Starbucks store and recycled there.  But I asked about recycling these used ground coffee bags at the store and they looked at me like I had crabs crawling out of my ears. In addition, the fellow behind the counter was rather patronizing in the tone of his response to me, as if I was stupid for asking. This made me mad.

Here’s my note to Starbucks:

12/6/2017

Dear Starbucks,
I like your coffee. I’m VERY VERY concerned about the environmental impact of your product packaging.

Your paper cups say they contain 10% post consumer waste. Can’t you do better than THAT? How about 100% post consumer waste to make your cups. Why not?

And the plastic cups? Why aren’t they made of post consumer waste? They should be.

And what about the bags in which your coffee beans and ground coffee are packaged. Those are neither composed of post consumer waste nor are they recyclable.

All this amounts to a BLOT on Starbuck’s environmental responsibility. Starbucks is a HUGE POLLUTER.

What are you going to do about that?
My suggestions:
Make sure ALL PACKAGING is composed of 100% post consumer waste.
Make ALL PACKAGING 100% recyclable or biodegradable.

Come on Starbucks. Be a good corporate citizen of the world. Do the right thing. Lead the way!

Thank you,
Emily Gleichenhaus
Arlington, VA
Project PUT: Pick Up Trash

PS: I will be posting my note to you and your response on all our social media.

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https://twitter.com/ProjectPUT