Phil Rozenski director of marketing and sustainability hilex poly
NYT:http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/09/19/19greenwire-pr-battle-over-plastic-bags-ends-in-court-sett-61498.html
lies about size of garbage patch
lies about EPA stats–counterfeited EPA page and used old stats
fined for lying
lies about how many bags people use
lies about recycling rate
lies about benefits of reusable bags
forged a NOAA page
Hilex Poly also accused Keller of creating a false National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Web page on the plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean, sometimes called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Keller was using that in an education package that it provided to schools, but “his document was not the actual NOAA document,” Rozenski said.
“a reusable bag needs only to be used eleven times to have a lower environmental impact than using eleven disposable bags” and that “somewhere between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year.”
Both companies agreed to concessions in the settlement, including that they will use only the most recent U.S. EPA data on how much plastic bags and other plastic products are recycled. They also agreed to show sources and dates for all statistics cited on Web pages or advertising.
In addition, ChicoBag will pay an undisclosed financial settlement. Hilex Poly will print a message on its bags stating, “tie bag in knot before disposal,” and will put statements on its website about preventing windblown litter of plastic bags.
Among other restrictions in the settlement, ChicoBag no longer can cite a 2005 EPA statistic that 1 percent of plastic bags are recycled. The company also agreed to state on its website that carryout plastic bags are only a subset of the plastic bags seen in ocean debris.
“This settlement ensures that facts are accurate,” Mark Daniels, Hilex Poly vice president of sustainability, said in a statement. “We welcome a vigorous and honest debate about the use of plastic carryout bags. While all parties are entitled to their own opinions, Hilex Poly believes that everyone should be careful to be accurate in the facts presented.”
ChicoBag was using a figure on plastic bag recycling that EPA “had removed and retracted,” said Phil Rozenski, director of marketing and sustainability at Hilex Poly. Keller had recreated the EPA site, “so it was a counterfeit website.”
A federal lawsuit in South Carolina accuses ChicoBag of illegal trash-talking about plastic bag waste.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/science/earth/12garbage.html
The lawsuit, filed by three leading plastic bag manufacturers, contends that ChicoBag (whose reusable bag, when compressed into its carrying pouch, looks like a slightly squished Hacky Sack) knowingly overstated figures like the size of the garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean and the number of marine creatures killed by eating plastic garbage.
He added that the facts on his Web site “have been part of the public debate for years.”
Not so, said Philip Rozenski, the director of marketing and sustainability at Hilex Poly, a maker of plastic trash bags. He said that ChicoBag’s Web site cites Environmental Protection Agency information that is outdated. The E.P.A. no longer endorses estimates like the one ChicoBag cited: that only 1 percent of plastic bags are recycled. Mr. Keller said an industry site used the same figure until recently.
Perhaps the most creative form of trash-talking done by ChicoBag, however, is not part of the lawsuit. Noting that Americans use an average of 500 plastic bags a year, Mr. Keller sometimes dresses up as “Bagmonster,” donning 500 bags and going to rallies in his trashy regalia.
It’s a victory for the environment and environmental advocates that Care2 members helped to make happen.
That means the plaintiff has to show that the claims at issue are causing specific injury of some kind, more than just vague reputational damage.”
Considering himself an activist first, businessman second, Keller bristles at those who would suggest that he started ChicoBag for any sort of business reason. In addition to the information he provides on his site, Keller also supplies toolkits for teachers, complete with lesson plans related to plastic, and is the creator of the Bag Monster, a character that visually represents the plastic bag problem. Keller created a costume for the Bag Monster complete with 500 plastic bags attached (the number the average U.S. consumer goes through per year), and now has a few costumes which he loans out to any organization or educational institution that wants to use the Bag Monster to raise awareness about plastic pollution.
The plastic bag manufacturers point to several inaccuracies on the page, including stats such as a 1 percent recycling rate for plastic bags. ChicoBag founder and CEO Andy Keller says that stat came from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but that agency has since revised its stats, putting plastic bag recycling rates in about the 6-percent range.
“They sent us a cease and desist order related to a few facts that they dispute, and we took those facts down until we had time to investigate,” says ChicoBag CEO Andy Keller.”Then they sued us anyway.”
The latest is a suit filed earlier this year by three large plastic bag manufacturers (Hilex Poly LLC, SuperBag Operating Ltd., and Advance Polybag Inc.) against ChicoBag, a small reusable bag maker based in Chico, California. This time, rather than get the FTC involved, the plaintiffs have kept the suit private, opting instead to accuse ChicoBag of violating the Lanham Act, a piece of trademark legislation that protects businesses from false advertising.
It’s not as though ChicoBag has taken out ads defaming Hilex Poly–no one would know who they were talking about–but it turns out they don’t have to. Under the Lanham Act, a company can sue over claims that name them directly or that merely point to their product in general, as is the case here. The suit has been filed in South Carolina, a move ChicoBag’s supporters believe was done to avoid California’s anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) laws, and promises to head to a jury trial in January 2012 barring any sort of settlement in the meantime.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/amywestervelt/2011/06/21/small-plastic-bag-lawsuit-could-have-a-huge-impact-on-green-business/
from chico’s web site:
changed copy
DID YOU KNOW?
- “Solid materials, typically waste, that has found its way to the marine environment is called marine debris. It is known to be the cause of injuries and deaths of numerous marine animals and birds, either because they become entangled in it or they mistake it for prey and eat it.”2Read More
- “At least 267 different species are known to have suffered from entanglement or ingestion of marine debris including seabirds, turtles, seals, sea lions, whales and fish. The scale of contamination of the marine environment by plastic debris is vast. It is found floating in all the world’s oceans, everywhere from polar region to the equator.”2 Read More
- The Great Pacific Garbage Patch has mistakenly been referred to as the largest landfill in the world, a floating island, and a trash vortex. According to the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is most accurately represented as a “plastic soup” where the plastic is distributed throughout the water column.9 Read More
- Of more than ten million pieces of garbage picked up on ocean beaches in 2009 during International Coastal Cleanup Day, 1,126,774 were plastic bags. Plastic bag debris was second only to cigarette butts/filters (21%) in number and accounted for full 11% of ALL marine debris picked up. (This report refers to plastic bags in general. We want you to know that there are many types of plastic bags from produce bags, to tortilla chip bags, and that retail carry-out bags (AKA plastic grocery bags) are just a subset of the litter statistic in this study)4 Read More
- The reason that turtles ingest marine debris is not known with certainty. It has been suggested that debris, such as plastic bags, look similar to, and are mistaken for jellyfish. Studies on dead turtles reported ingestion of marine debris in 79.6% of the turtles that were examined from the Western Mediterranean (Tomas et al. 2002), 60.5% of turtles in Southern Brazil (Bugoni et al. 2001) and 56% of turtles in Florida (Bjordal et al. 1994)2 Read More
- According to research done by Captain Charles Moore on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, it has been found that there are six pounds of plastic for every pound of plankton in the area.5 Read More
If everyone in the United States tied their annual consumption of plastic bags together in a giant chain, the chain would reach around the Earth’s equator 776 times!10
Be part of the solution and kick your single-use bag habit!
BACKGROUND ON SINGLE-USE PLASTIC BAGS:
- Introduced in the 1970’s as an alternative to paper bags, plastic bags now account for 80 percent of grocery bags given out, according to the American Plastics Council.3
- According to the United States International Trade Commission, in 2008, U.S. consumption of imported and domestically produced Polyethylene Retail Carrier Bags was reported to be 102,105,637,000. 10
- According to the US EPA annual Municipal Solid Waste Report (MSW) from 2005, less than 1% of plastic bags (HDPE, LDPE/LLDPE, PS, PVC) were recycled in the United States. Starting in 2006, the EPA started reporting a recycling rate that included other types of non-bag film and wraps. In the 2009 report, the recycling rate for HDPE film (bags, sacks and wraps) was 6.1% and the recycling rate for LDPE/LLDPE film (bags, sacks and wraps) was 13.4%. While the statistic from 2005 is dated, we believe it is the most recent statistic available for plastic bag recycling that does not include non-bag film and wrap. We are urging the plastic bag industry to release an updated plastic bag recycling statistic that does not include non-bag plastic film and wrap.8
DID YOU KNOW? http://www.chicobag.com/t-learn_facts.aspx
- “Solid materials, typically waste, that has found its way to the marine environment is called marine debris. It is known to be the cause of injuries and deaths of numerous marine animals and birds, either because they become entangled in it or they mistake it for prey and eat it.”2Read More
- “At least 267 different species are known to have suffered from entanglement or ingestion of marine debris including seabirds, turtles, seals, sea lions, whales and fish. The scale of contamination of the marine environment by plastic debris is vast. It is found floating in all the world’s oceans, everywhere from polar region to the equator.”2 Read More
- The Great Pacific Garbage Patch has mistakenly been referred to as the largest landfill in the world, a floating island, and a trash vortex. According to the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is most accurately represented as a “plastic soup” where the plastic is distributed throughout the water column.9 Read More
- Of more than ten million pieces of garbage picked up on ocean beaches in 2009 during International Coastal Cleanup Day, 1,126,774 were plastic bags. Plastic bag debris was second only to cigarette butts/filters (21%) in number and accounted for full 11% of ALL marine debris picked up. (This report refers to plastic bags in general. We want you to know that there are many types of plastic bags from produce bags, to tortilla chip bags, and that retail carry-out bags (AKA plastic grocery bags) are just a subset of the litter statistic in this study)4 Read More
- The reason that turtles ingest marine debris is not known with certainty. It has been suggested that debris, such as plastic bags, look similar to, and are mistaken for jellyfish. Studies on dead turtles reported ingestion of marine debris in 79.6% of the turtles that were examined from the Western Mediterranean (Tomas et al. 2002), 60.5% of turtles in Southern Brazil (Bugoni et al. 2001) and 56% of turtles in Florida (Bjordal et al. 1994)2 Read More
- According to research done by Captain Charles Moore on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, it has been found that there are six pounds of plastic for every pound of plankton in the area.5 Read More
- If everyone in the United States tied their annual consumption of plastic bags together in a giant chain, the chain would reach around the Earth’s equator 776 times!10
BACKGROUND ON SINGLE-USE PAPER BAGS
- Each year the United States consumes 10 billion paper grocery bags, requiring 14 million trees.6
- Five industries account for 68 percent of all energy used in the industrial sector. Pulp and paper accounts for 6 percent of energy usage making it the fourth largest contributor7.
Sources:
