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YESS: Establishing a Foundation for Scaling Up Positive Change

5/1/2018

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I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to help the Responsible Sourcing Network create and pilot the YESS (Yarn Ethically & Sustainably Sourced) standard, which is an industry-wide approach for yarn spinning mills to eliminate cotton produced with forced labor from their supply chains. The YESS standard is based on the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD)'s Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains in the Garment and Footwear Sector.

As I alluded to in my greeting, I believe that a spinning mill that establishes an effective due diligence management system to conform to the YESS standard can serve as a foundation for addressing additional issues over time.

For example, among other requirements, the YESS standard requires spinning mills to:
  1. Embed responsible business conduct in enterprise policy and management systems.
  2. Conduct due diligence on their suppliers and the cotton lint they source.
  3. Train staff on their duties to uphold the enterprise's sourcing policy.
  4. Undergo annual third-party assessments to ensure their management system is appropriate for their sourcing strategies and effective and identify continuous improvement opportunities.
Each of these requirements will be important when spinners address other responsible sourcing issues. Many of them will also apply to issues within the spinning facilities' own operations.

By allowing a spinning mill to begin focusing on one specific issue - forced labor in cotton production - the YESS standard will help the mill to focus on developing an effective management system without becoming overwhelmed and bogged down with trying to make their initial system work for myriad other disparate environmental and ethical requirements. Once the spinning mill has implemented the well-established management system (that focuses on one issue), they will find themselves in a better position from which to incorporate additional requirements over time.

Creating global solutions for every environmental and ethical issue across the entire cotton sector is a massive undertaking, but we must start somewhere. I believe YESS is an important first step in creating a holistic and more comprehensive solution.

Access the draft YESS standard and learn more about YESS through its Concept Note and Frequently Asked Questions here.
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The Future is Now: It is Time to Solve the Plastic Waste Problem

5/1/2018

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Plastic waste is getting a lot of attention these days, in part due to China's ban on waste imports at the beginning of 2018, along with a growing awareness of the massive plumes - or gyres - of plastic waste floating in our oceans and rivers. At the same time, production of plastics materials is rapidly expanding on the US Gulf Coast.

The kind of attention people are paying to plastic is not nearly as glamorous as what we saw 51 years ago in a famous conversation from the 1967 hit movie, "The Graduate," when plastic represented all great things to come:

Mr. McGuire: There is a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?
Benjamin Braddock: Yes, I will. [1]  
 
Unfortunately, Mr. McGuire and Benjamin Braddock - along with society at large - did not "think about it" responsibly. Specifically, we did not consider the end-of-life impact of this now ubiquitous, non-biodegradable material, including how to collect, recycle and reuse waste plastic.

According to Wikipedia, a 2017 study conducted by scientists from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of Georgia, of the 9.1 billion US tons (tons) of plastic produced since 1950, close to 7 billion tons are no longer in use.The authors estimate that only 9 percent of the plastic was recycled over the years, while another 12 percent was incinerated, leaving 5.5 billion tons of plastic waste littering the oceans and land. The study states further that 50-80 percent of debris in marine areas is plastic.[2] The authors show that 8 million metric tonnes (8.8 tons) of plastic are entering the ocean per year, and 80 percent of that comes from land sources.
 
To put this in perspective, in 2016, China accepted approximately 7.3 million tons of waste plastics from Japan, the EU, the US, and other developed countries.[3]
 
In response to China's decision to ban waste imports, which went into effect January 1, 2018, the EU nations and European Parliament have agreed to set a legally-binding target to recycle 55 percent of plastic packaging waste by 2030. They are now exploring mandates to ensure all plastic packaging is fully recyclable.[4]
 
Unfortunately, things are not looking very good for the US. Our recycling industry struggles to survive due to the high costs to collect, transport, and process bottles from mixed curbside recycling streams, which are directly competing with the relatively low prices for new (virgin or prime) plastics. In 2016 alone, 7 of 28 American polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recyclers shut down due to economic conditions.[5]
 
If one quarter of the PET recyclers are shutting down even in the US, where garbage separation, collection, and management infrastructure exists, stop and think about the implications for the many developing countries that don't yet have sufficient waste management systems and infrastructure. As you can imagine, the situation is horrendous. Consider this statistic: 10 rivers, two in Africa and the rest in Asia-discharge 90 percent of all plastic marine debris.[6]
  
Even though plastic waste is not our greatest environmental or public health issue, it is one that we can - and must - solve. Otherwise, our plastic problem will out of control in 50 years.
While I appreciate innovative successes - such as clothing or consumer products made with recycled PET, for example - their overall impact is negligible.[7] Whether it is the product itself or the packaging it comes in, we need to hold companies responsible for the end life of the plastics they sell. Companies and industry associations - such as the American Beverage Industry - can provide leadership, know-how, and "boots on the ground" in their consumer markets in developing countries. They should not rely on free volunteers or public sector workers to clean up their post-consumer product waste.

To this end, I have asked consumer brands, beverage companies and retailers the following three questions, which are aimed to encourage them to take action to reduce plastic waste of their products:
  1. Do you have publicly stated goals to track and reduce plastic waste of your products?
    • If so, what are these goals?
    • If not, why not?
  1. What efforts are you taking to reduce plastic litter in the countries where you sell products and to support the development of an efficient plastics recycling infrastructure - especially in your markets in Africa and East Asia, which have weak or no waste collection and recycling infrastructure and processes?
  2. What measures are you taking to educate and encourage consumers to end litter and/or recycle plastic packaging and products?
The companies producing plastic products or packaging have the technical capability, financial resources, and consumer connections that put them in a unique position to stop the litter of their own products. We must insist that businesses take responsibility for their products and packaging to the end of the material's life.

Please join me by asking your favorite brands and retailers these same questions.
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[1]Mike Nichols, director. The Graduate. Embassy Pictures, 1967.
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/world/china-recyclables-ban.html
[4] http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/plastic_waste.htm
[5] National Association for Plastic Container Resources and The Association of Plastic Recyclers, Report on Postconsumer PET Container Recycling Activity in 2016, 2017.
[6] https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2018/03/daily-chart-2
[7] https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/24/almost-no-plastic-bottles-get-recycled-into-new-bottles.html
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