The Changing Markets Foundation has published a handbook that gathers the tricks of polluting companies on false solutions to the plastic crisis, explaining the techniques that large beverage, food, supermarket, oil or petrochemical companies are doing to pave the way for new laws that would encourage waste reduction in 15 countries around the world. In the section on Spain, ECOEMBES is the employer who brings together the main causes of pollution caused by plastics and other ships, not only does not accept their responsibility, but also closes doors to advances, performing strict lobbying work. The newspaper El Salto has been in charge of making the report known in the Spanish State.
Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, Mars Incorporated, Mondellz International, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Perfetti Van Melle, Procter & Gamble and Unilever.. These 10 major corporations are responsible for the serious plastic crisis the planet is currently experiencing, and they have a plastic footprint of 10 million tons on the world. But it is they who, by greenwashing, make empty promises and propaganda for false solutions, distract consumers and governments alike.
In the section dedicated to Spain, the study refers to Ecoembes and its lobbying strategy, since, together with the large producers and distributors of plastics and other packaging, the public administrations try to hinder attempts to implement the system of returnable packaging (the SDDR in Spain, Deposito System, Return and Return). This SDRRTresna, which has been frequently explained by environmental and recycling movements, manages to reuse and/or recycle more than 90% of cans and bottles.
Ecoembes is responsible for managing the tax fund it has imposed on packaging companies for the recycling of plastic generated by them. Ecopackaging Spain, S.A. is a powerful network of companies that brings together over 12,000 companies related to plastics. Ecoembes' most notable consumer brands are Bimbo, Pascual, Campofrio, Coca-Cola, Colgate, Danone, Henkel, l'Oreal, Nestlé and PepsiCo. Among the producers of plastic packaging are Tetra Pak Hispania, Ciclopast and Ecoacero. Within Ecoembes there are also large supermarket chains such as Alcampo, Carrefour, etc.
Environmentalists in Action, Friends of the Earth and Retorna, who join the Zero Residue alliance, have denounced the new fraud that Ecoembes has recently invented: "The Ecoembes Reciclos project is one of the last attempts to disappoint the implementation of SDDR in the Spanish state, the Reward System (SDR), which would reward those who deposit the waste in yellow containers or in machines installed in public places. A fraud, a false solution that does not solve the problems and which claims that the SDDR administrations that really served me to return the boats do not impose them," said Carlos Arribas of Ekologistak Martxan.
The Changing Markets study has shown that Ecoembes, which supposedly plays a central role in the recycling chain, does a job just the other way around: "Invest a lot of money to create a state of opinion against disposable plastics alternatives. Environmental advisor Alberto Vizcaíno explained that companies responsible for plastic pollution "have financed research that manipulates data, publish statistics that do not correspond to the actual results of waste management based on colored containers and finance environmental and naturalist associations, as well as environmental education campaigns to contain citizens' criticisms and lead the environmental discourse to society and the media."
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