What has Capitalism to do with plastic pollution?
November 2020
If you want to have a glimpse at how intertwined international capitalism is and get a small view of how it works then see the pic below. This shows the relationships between companies which operate in the same market. The larger companies own many subsidiaries who apparently compete against each other with similar products. In the long run, the larger companies seem to be giving us a choice, but they win out no matter which product we buy. These companies are rich and powerful and the decisions they take affect us whether we like it or not.
What has this to do with plastic pollution? You will hear lots of people say that we all have to do our part for global change – recycle paper, plastics and glass etc – and that is true. However, it is only one part of the solution. It is when you see how diverse and powerful companies are that you begin to realise that they have a vast impact on the world. Me on my own recycling my glass bottles will make diddly-squat difference to this planet. Even a city the size of Bristol with everyone assiduously recycling is not going to make a substantial difference. Now don’t get me wrong it is right to recycle. It is like being in a trade union. One person asking for better conditions can be ignored by management, but if the whole workforce is in a union then they can’t be so easily dismissed. Collectively we do make a make a difference and so we should all individually continue to recycle. But convince a large company to change the packaging on their products that millions of us use and that will make a big and immediate difference.
Take Unilever. They are a massive firm. Their webpage states:-
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2.5 billion people use our products each day
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400+ Unilever brands are used by consumers worldwide
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190 Countries in which our brands are sold
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155,000 Unilever people deliver our success
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€52 billion Our turnover in 2019
Any change in their policies on anything “ethical” will reflect in considerable changes elsewhere. I am not knocking Unilever per se, but we as consumers have power because if we didn’t buy their products then the firms would go bust. It is the essential feature of capitalism that companies must make a profit. Dumping plastics in the seas is a cheap and easy thing to do – in the short term at any rate - which is exactly why some firms do it. If it was cheaper and easier to recycle plastic, then that is what they would do. Another feature of capitalism is economic myopia coupled with an ability not to care too much about how you make your profits.
As well as playing our little part in recycling, we should also concentrate on getting big companies like the ones shown (and supermarkets where lots of their products are sold) to change their policies for the better.
If you would like to learn more or see how you can help then see https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/challenges/plastic-pollution/
Solidarity
Brian Madican
November 2020
