Monsanto Signs For Circular Economy!

Just when I thought I've seen it all, the world continues to suprise me! LOL!

As I was thinking, where are all the GOOD businesses that WANT to be eco-friendly and more sustainable and make less waste, EEB (who is celebrating 40th birthday - Happy Birthday!) published an open letter by Peter Bakker from World Business Council for Sustainable Development to EU Commissioner Karmenu Vella and a list of businesses FOR Circular Economy!

Of course I was thrilled!! Then, I went to check who's IN!

And almost fainted. Monsanto, Unilever, Syngenta - who are pro GMO (genetically modified organisms) are on the list of 'business solutions for a sustainable world'!

Then you have Chevron, DuPont, BASF, DuPont, Dow and several other chemical companies. The notorious Lafarge (notorious in our country, Slovenia! for burning waste in a cement kiln, and other things - though some locals like it for bringing jobs to the area), Veolia who is partly good (sponsoring excellent series on rethinking resources over at the Guardian!) and partly pro incinerators as well (though they seem open to other uses of their 'exotics' and other 'excess' which is a trendy word for waste that Looptworks is using smartly), and sued Egypt for raising minimum wage. Whaat?

With companies like these FOR Circular Economy package, will it be any good? Good question.
As written in the previous post, Zero Waste Europe thinks the package of legislation would need to be improved to ban incinerators as well.

Locally - well, nationally the debate 'zero waste' or 'incinerators' has been raised again. More opportunity for campaigning and raising awareness!
Of course eyes will need to be on the watch on this all - whether the new legislation gets accepted or not!

There are some GOOD companies on the list also, like IKEA or Samsung, Nissan (that I at least don't know anything bad about - yet:)... McKinsey, champions of circular economy...

But the really GOOD THING about this is that BIG businesses at a bigger level are thinking about this, BIG TIME. Even Coca Cola and Pepsi. Nestlé, infamous as it may be?

And when some consumers like my sister (who still loves Coca Cola) can't seem to be bothered with more messages about waste and eco-friendliness beyond the general recycling, it does seem up to the businesses and legislation to provide more eco-friendly solutions. The individual consumer can only do so much.

So, I say YAY for such a big number of businesses for Circular Economy! (Even though I'm still flabbergasted by some of the names!) And I hope that they will, well, go greener overall? ;) (Monsanto, Syngenta and Unilever, that means no GMOs too, do you hear me? ;)

What do y'all think? ;)

Voldemort's Minions - What Has Been Really Going On?

There has been some development. Apparently the lobbying group BusinessEurope and its friends have been behind TTIP and in opposition to Circular Economy and Clean Air packages and some other legislation for gender equality and for pregnant women.

It makes one wonder WHY: TTIP is said to bring 1.300.000 jobs or so, the Circular Economy 2 million! But surely employers (BusinessEurope seems mainly to be an association of employers' associations) don't just look for new jobs to be created! The Circular Economy could bring BIG savings - previous European Commission has predicted up to EUR 600 billion net savings for EU businesses as well.

EEB has been fighting for the Circular Economy package, they're great, but they will probably need help. From all of us.
The Guardian (UK newspaper) is pro-circular economy too, some good articles and interviews etc. "If we don't reuse things, we are going to start running out of materials." Can material innovation save the world?" (I just worry that one of their sponsors, Veolia, is for incineration of waste also, though they seem open to people using up waste - or 'excess' creatively.) In the debate, they touch upon resistance of companies to take up new waste targets as well, as they have sales targets and other things on their plates. But isn't that just, um, being a bit shortsighted? Where are businesses with longterm VISION?

Some businesses have recognized the importance of Circular Economy, namely plastics recyclers and such.

Luckily, some smart businesses want to go green! Unilever confirms it has quit BusinessEurope lobby group. We hope for many more!

Good news: there will be WAY less plastic bags in EU in the future - we still need to fight against the evil oxo-degradable bags that collapse into thousands of mini plastic pieces. And we have until December 16th to change the opinion of the new EU Commission about Circular Economy!

What you can do: write to your country's association of employers that is part of BusinessEurope and ask them to appeal to BusinessEurope to change its ways! Specifically, to stop opposing Circular Economy and Clean Air and other good legislation proposals. Or to withdraw its membership out of it. Or to businesses that are members directly. Blog, tweet, retweet &Facebook &'like' messages about the importance of Circular Economy! We are many! Our voices CAN make a difference!

Do you have any other ideas on what could be done? :)