Post by account_disabled on Mar 5, 2024 9:54:02 GMT 5.5
Did you know that approximately 161 years ago, after John Hyatt invented the material called celluloid (a material that gave rise to synthetic plastic) he dedicated himself to founding a company that produced combs, brushes, mirrors, collars and cuffs for shirts, glasses, and the rest?
Curiously, an advertising brochure of the company said about celluloid : “just as oil came to the relief of whales (whose oil was used as fuel in lamps), celluloid has provided a respite for the elephant, the coral and the turtle. "We will no longer have to plunder the earth in search of increasingly scarce substances . " (Celluloid began to be used in the arts to imitate ivory, shell and coral).
It is a fact that today plastic has left aside Chile Mobile Number List everything that said brochure offered a century ago, and instead of being beneficial, it is destroying. In fact, synthetic plastic became a global enemy that is now becoming stronger thanks to various accomplices, one of the biggest? The banks.
Deadly complicity
Savings channelers, issuers of loans and credits as well as financial products, are just some of the functions of banks, which have become of vital importance in modernity. However, if something characterizes them, it is that they are also institutions that have not aligned themselves with their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and are not addressing the plastic pollution crisis.
According to a report by Portfolio.earth — a group that tracks the financial industry's impact on the environment — that covered the funding period from January 2015 to September 2019:
Banks have been responsible for providing $1.7 trillion in financing to packaging companies, retailers and related businesses.
Banks have not implemented due diligence processes for packaging companies nor have they conditioned financing on policies that reduce plastic and favor recycling over virgin plastics.
Banks currently take no responsibility to understand, measure or reduce the impacts of their lending within the plastics value chain.
By indiscriminately financing plastics supply chain actors, banks have failed to recognize their role in enabling global plastic pollution.
Portfolio.earth.
A growing snowball
Annually, approximately 11 million metric tons of plastic enter the oceans , causing damage to wildlife habitats and harming marine life. The annual flow of plastics into the oceans is on a trajectory to triple over the next 20 years , potentially adding up to 110 pounds of plastic trash for every meter of coastline worldwide, according to a July report from the Pew Charitable Trusts. .
According to Infobae , banking institutions seem to be oblivious to this information or simply indifferent, since at the moment they have not shown mercy or empathy:
Approximately 265 banks provided loans and subscriptions to 40 companies in the plastic packaging value chain, including the polymer and fast-moving consumer goods industries.
Among the main financiers are:
Bank of America Corp.
Citigroup Inc.
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Given this, the director of Vivid Economics , which audited the Portfolio.earth report, stated:
Banks should mitigate their role in enabling plastic pollution in several ways, for example by aligning their loan portfolios with public policy on reducing, reusing and recycling plastics, and ceasing financing of new plants that use raw materials. virgin to produce single-use plastic packaging.
Robin Smale, director of Vivid Economics, which audited the Portfolio.earth report.
To try to solve the problem, Portfolio.earth says banks should make financing for companies in the plastic packaging supply chain conditional on best practices. And corporations should encourage the reuse of plastic packaging products.
Is the problem that serious?
As mentioned, plastics cause a harmful effect on the environment and the planet. So much so that according to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), with current pollution rates, it is likely that there will be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050 . Unfortunately, the problem does not stop there, it goes so far that it can also affect our health.
Plastics are made from a combination of chemicals with the purpose of improving their properties, preventing their degradation when exposed to light, and decreasing infallibility.
Curiously, an advertising brochure of the company said about celluloid : “just as oil came to the relief of whales (whose oil was used as fuel in lamps), celluloid has provided a respite for the elephant, the coral and the turtle. "We will no longer have to plunder the earth in search of increasingly scarce substances . " (Celluloid began to be used in the arts to imitate ivory, shell and coral).
It is a fact that today plastic has left aside Chile Mobile Number List everything that said brochure offered a century ago, and instead of being beneficial, it is destroying. In fact, synthetic plastic became a global enemy that is now becoming stronger thanks to various accomplices, one of the biggest? The banks.
Deadly complicity
Savings channelers, issuers of loans and credits as well as financial products, are just some of the functions of banks, which have become of vital importance in modernity. However, if something characterizes them, it is that they are also institutions that have not aligned themselves with their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and are not addressing the plastic pollution crisis.
According to a report by Portfolio.earth — a group that tracks the financial industry's impact on the environment — that covered the funding period from January 2015 to September 2019:
Banks have been responsible for providing $1.7 trillion in financing to packaging companies, retailers and related businesses.
Banks have not implemented due diligence processes for packaging companies nor have they conditioned financing on policies that reduce plastic and favor recycling over virgin plastics.
Banks currently take no responsibility to understand, measure or reduce the impacts of their lending within the plastics value chain.
By indiscriminately financing plastics supply chain actors, banks have failed to recognize their role in enabling global plastic pollution.
Portfolio.earth.
A growing snowball
Annually, approximately 11 million metric tons of plastic enter the oceans , causing damage to wildlife habitats and harming marine life. The annual flow of plastics into the oceans is on a trajectory to triple over the next 20 years , potentially adding up to 110 pounds of plastic trash for every meter of coastline worldwide, according to a July report from the Pew Charitable Trusts. .
According to Infobae , banking institutions seem to be oblivious to this information or simply indifferent, since at the moment they have not shown mercy or empathy:
Approximately 265 banks provided loans and subscriptions to 40 companies in the plastic packaging value chain, including the polymer and fast-moving consumer goods industries.
Among the main financiers are:
Bank of America Corp.
Citigroup Inc.
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Given this, the director of Vivid Economics , which audited the Portfolio.earth report, stated:
Banks should mitigate their role in enabling plastic pollution in several ways, for example by aligning their loan portfolios with public policy on reducing, reusing and recycling plastics, and ceasing financing of new plants that use raw materials. virgin to produce single-use plastic packaging.
Robin Smale, director of Vivid Economics, which audited the Portfolio.earth report.
To try to solve the problem, Portfolio.earth says banks should make financing for companies in the plastic packaging supply chain conditional on best practices. And corporations should encourage the reuse of plastic packaging products.
Is the problem that serious?
As mentioned, plastics cause a harmful effect on the environment and the planet. So much so that according to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), with current pollution rates, it is likely that there will be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050 . Unfortunately, the problem does not stop there, it goes so far that it can also affect our health.
Plastics are made from a combination of chemicals with the purpose of improving their properties, preventing their degradation when exposed to light, and decreasing infallibility.