Plastics | The Barefoot Spirit

Pakistan Takes a Stand on Single-Use Plastic Bags

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 17:00:47 +0000

Taking a trip to Kenya? Leave you plastic bags at home or face a $40,000 fine with up to 4 years in prison! Seems a little over the top? Two years ago, the Kenyans suddenly enacted the world’s toughest ban against single-use plastic bags. According to the Kenyans, “A sudden ban is easier to enforce than trying to collect tax or a fee, because there is no incentive to bribe (your way out of it).”

Drowning in Plastic

According to Pamela Constable of the Washington Post, just yesterday Pakistan suddenly banned all single-use polyethylene bags from their capital, Islamabad. Officials estimate that the city of about 1.5 million people produced and discarded 55 billion plastic bags a year. The bags ended up in parks and vacant lots, clogging sewers and drains, eaten by goats and dogs, and ultimately polluting canals and streams. Sound familiar?

“Something We have to Do!”

According to Malik Amin Aslam of the Ministry of Climate Change, which is spearheading the effort, “This is something we have to do. You cannot burn, bury, reuse, or recycle these bags.” This is part of a larger Green Initiative that Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Imran Khan is pushing. Last year it began with a program to plant 10 billion trees to combat deforestation. The fines in Pakistan won’t be as stiff as Kenya, but will certainly get everyone’s attention: $31 for using one, $63 for selling one, and $31,000 for manufacturing plastic bags. Since the national per capita income is only $1,200 per year, these are still pretty hefty penalties.

Time to Join the Parade

Over 40 countries have now either banned or taxed single-use plastic bags. Interestingly, Americans have yet to do so. We evidently think as a country that we can continue to use them without consequence, even though the “urban tumbleweeds” are right there blowing across our roads, hanging in our trees, and raggedly splayed out on our fences. China stopped taking plastic garbage from the US two years ago. Now, South East Asia is clamping down. Today, it’s our problem. Like the Pakistani Minister says, “You can’t burn, bury, recycle, or re-use them.” Why are we disregarding what other countries already know and are taking action on?

But, where will they Work?

Of course, the manufacturers of plastic bags in Pakistan have protested, citing layoffs of a half-million people. The Ministry is meeting with them to discover how the factories that produce plastic bags can be converted to produce other goods. Perhaps the message to business is why wait ‘til there’s a crisis and an outcry that forces change, like Kenya and Pakistan? Why not anticipate this mega-trend and make moves now to produce alternatives? Why not support fledgling companies who are solving this problem? This is a huge financial opportunity! There’s obviously a market for alternatives with 40 countries now on board. And what about laborers? These new companies will need that labor. The way we see it, producers of single-use plastic bags must change over now or get outlawed and out-sold by their competition that is doing so.

Many thanks to Kenya and Pakistan for showing the world “a brand new bag!”

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Small Towns Stand Up to Big Plastic

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Mon, 01 Jul 2019 06:29:08 +0000

Just imagine what it might be like to eat a credit card. Now imagine eating a credit card EVERY WEEK! According to the World Wildlife Fund, humans now ingest the equivalent amount of a credit card in microplastics each week! This happens because microplastics are now ubiquitous in our environment from the water we drink to the food we eat.

The trillion dollar plastics industry is opposed to any efforts by the Federal Government and the State Governments to stem the tide of single-use plastics by law. But two states, Maryland and Maine, recently passed laws banning the use of at least polystyrene foam food containers, generally known as Styrofoam.

Meanwhile, in the last decade, in California alone, 120 cities and counties have passed some kind of regulations on polystyrene food containers. It’s evidently harder for the industry to affect the decisions of smaller governing bodies. Sebastopol, small town just down the road from us, recently passed an ordinance prohibiting the sale or use of disposable cups, burger boxes, clamshell containers and ice chests made of expanded polystyrene. This particular type of single-use convenience food and packaging material is especially dangerous since it is brittle, breaks up easily. It is mostly air so it blows around, and degrades into microplastics that get into the soil and waterways. It is very hard to capture.

Level Playing Field

So, what’s the effect on business? Well, for one thing, the regulations will create a somewhat level playing field in terms of competition. All retailers will be held to the same rules. Here-to-fore, businesses could claim that their competition was using the cheaper polystyrene and that if they voluntarily chose compostable products, they would be at a disadvantage because of the greater cost.

Reduced Costs for Compostables

Interestingly, as the demand for the alternatives grows, as we have seen in so many other alternative industries, the costs of those alternatives goes down. Sheer volume creates efficiencies of scale that are passed down through the competitive sales process to the retailer.

New Jobs and Industries

Opportunities for compostable and reusable containers are bound to increase. In the little town down the road, for instance, customers who bring their own reusable to-go containers get a 25-cent credit. All customers have to pay a takeout charge up to 10 cents to defray the costs associated with conversion to compostable lids, cups, straws, or utensils that may be more expensive in the short run. This, in effect, subsidizes the cost of reusable containers and single-use compostables.

Out of Control

So, how did the poisoning of the wildlife, the waterways, the soil, and even ourselves ever become so competitively advantageous to the takeout food industry? Simply, the entire cost of the post-sale packaging, including the hazardous effects were dumped on the environment and the consumer, not the producers. Now we are actually eating it! And because we gave them our money for their products, the producers became so strong, they could fund giant PR campaigns and lobbying efforts to protect themselves against the full costs of their packaging. The polystyrene producers are not fighting the ordinances so much as they are trying to use the government to stifle competition. This is just plain unfair and, as we’ve seen, dangerous!

Conclusion

We are business people and we support business, but not the monopoly of any industry. We think ordinances like this are good for business and innovation. They give new businesses a chance to compete. They raise the big picture issues that have to do with the real costs to the environment and our own health for which we as consumers are being asked to pick up the tab.

As Tip O’Neill, the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives used to say, “All politics is local!” When little towns have to pass ordinances against big companies to protect the health and welfare of their citizens, wildlife, and environment, we are witnessing a failure of State and Federal Governments to protect the health and welfare of their broader constituents. It’s not OK to allow big plastic to say, “Eat our plastic!”

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Is Your CPG Company on the Right Side of History?

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 22:09:21 +0000

Because we successfully built a popular consumer packaged goods brand, now known the world over, we are often asked about packaging. Our audiences want to know, “What’s the latest in packaging?” and, “What are the new trends?” After all, the “P” in CPG is “package.”

In the 1967 movie, “The Graduate,” a young man, recently graduated from college, is given advice from his dad’s best friend, “I’ve got one word for you, Benjamin: Plastics.” If we were giving advice to college grads today, we would add one more word, “alternatives,” making the best advice we have to give, “plastic alternatives.”

To read the complete article, please visit Entrepreneur

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post Is Your CPG Company on the Right Side of History? appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.