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US Southern Forests are too important to be wasted for fast food packaging, says Dogwood Alliance, and a new report and a new campaign launched this week at www.nofreerefills.org hopes to changes the ways of the leading fast food chains.
Check out news of some of the events that are part of the rolling launch of this campaign from the places that are impacted by clearcutting forests for fast food packaging.
Did Canadian Tire preempt a campaign against them by Greenpeace, or was this just a coincidence? On the day that Greenpeace made an attempt to hang a banner naming Canadian Tire and several other companies sourcing paper from the boreal forests of Canada's great northern wilderness in Toronto, Canadian Tire announced that it is no longer going to publish its paper catalogue. It will sell its wares online henceforth.
Well, I doubt the direct connection, but it is good news for the boreal forest. Let's hope many more companies will follow in their footsteps.
ForestEthics launched a new campaign today to end unwanted direct mail, or junk mail, once and for all.
The website, www.DoNotMail.org, hosts a petition calling for national legislation similar to the "Do Not Call" list. Legislation has been introduced recently in Vermont by Representative Christopher Pearson.
Says Adrian Grenier of HBO's Entourage, a petition signer, "Junk mail is more than an annoying waste of time, it's a waste of our environment."
A house has been built by artist Sumer Erek out of newspapers in London, UK, to highlight the growing scandal of 'freesheets'. More than 4 million newspapers are handed out free and discarded in the city each day. The underground trains alone have to cope with 9.5 tonnes of them daily. Using newspapers collected by Project Freesheet and the transport companies, the newspaper house is a public art project, which is helping to raise awareness of everyone's responsibility to treat paper as something more than toss-away rubbish. Brilliant. There's a blog about it and a video.
Addressing longstanding concerns raised by northwest Ontario’s Grassy Narrows First Nation, Rainforest Action Network (RAN), and a coalition of allies, Boise Inc. has notified logging company AbitibiBowater that it will cease purchasing wood fiber logged from Grassy Narrows’ traditional territory in the Whiskey Jack Forest without the Indigenous community’s consent.
According to a letter from Boise to environmental certifiers dated Feb. 27, the company “wishes to honor the request of [Grassy Narrows] Chief [Simon] Fobister to discontinue sourcing fiber from the Traditional Use Area of Grassy Narrows.” Boise’s landmark decision comes just four weeks prior to an expected report from former Canadian Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci on negotiations with the community over the same concerns.
More information and backstory at www.freegrassy.org
Mayor Bloomberg recently announced(VIDEO), from the top of the Empire State Building, the
In explaining some of the reasons for this effort, Mayor Bloomberg speaks plain truth including the fact that "making new paper produces more greenhouse gases than paper recycling."
Unfortunately, amidst this very positive announcement, was something confusing from the head of Hearst Magazines. Cathie Black stated that they were on the fast track to having at least 80% of their magazines coming from forests "certified to a widely accepted third party standard." Well, the only "widely accepted" certification of well managed forests is the Forest Stewardship Council, a fact supported by the consensus of hundred of conservation organizations and numerous studies. But the fact that she did not specify is a signal that they may attempt to deceive consumers by using another certification scheme without the same credibility. Not to mention the fact that she said nothing at all about using recycled paper, which would of course be best of all.
The Paper Planet challenges Cathie Black and Hearst to continue it path to responsibility, which it has made many notable accomplishments in, by adopting a responsible paper policy that includes a high percentage of recycled paper content and gives preference to only Forest Stewardship Council certification forest fiber.
Taco Bell and friends better make a run for the green consultant.
The Raleigh News Observer, MongaBay, and many others are picking up the story of how Yum! Brands, the worlds largest restaurant company, is driving the destruction of forests in the Southeastern U.S. by its failure to implement a responsible paper use policy.
Dogwood Alliance can help you take action on behalf of native forests and motivate Yum! Brands by clicking here.
A fantastic cover story this month in Book Business Magazine is about how a movement to transform the book industry towards more responsible paper use is growing rapidly and really taking hold, thanks to the encouragement and expert assistance of the Green Press Initiative, and the initiative of some of the biggest book publishers in the world.
This is good news for the public health, the climate, and endangered forests, and part of a rapidly growing movement by corporate purchasers from every sector to "green" their supply chain. Check it out.
The New York Times had an article this weekend on the "paperless home" entitled, "Pushing Paper Out the Door." Make sure to check out the charts and graphs they have as well.
For tips at your place of business to save money by using less paper take a moment to look at the Environmental Paper Network's short fact sheet on Increasing Paper Use Efficiency.
Also, check out, join and tell a friend about a new initiative from Europe called Shrink! that includes a call for people around the world to pledge to use less paper.
The Wall Street Journal and others reported today that office supply retail giant Staples has canceled its contract with Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) for its continued poor environmental performance and unwillingness to transform itself to meet the needs of its customers.
From the WSJ piece:
"We decided engagement was not possible anymore," Mr. Buckley said. "We haven't seen any indication that APP has been making any positive strides" to protect the environment. Remaining a customer of APP was "at great peril to our brand," he added.
APP representatives didn't return calls seeking comment."
Today, our friends at the Dogwood Alliance released a report, "Southeastern Swamplands & Paper Packaging," that details the world class biological hot spot of the Southeastern coastal forests and wetlands and the growing threat to this region by International Paper and their largest corporate customers. The main product produced by IP in this region is paper packaging and one of the largest customers is the fast food industry including Yum! Brand Foods (KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and more), McDonald's and more.
In addition to the report, activists held press conferences in Norfolk, VA and Wilmington, NC and presented petitions signed by thousands of citizens calling for protection of the region’s forests.
A quote from the press conference in Wilmington, NC:
“We are here today to shine a bright spotlight on the incredibly diverse forests of the Southeastern swampland and call on International Paper and their big customers to stop the needless destruction of our forests,” said Ruth Morrison, Campaign Organizer for Dogwood Alliance in Wilmington, NC. “The forests of coastal Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia like the Green Swamp in North Carolina and the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia should not be chopped down, chipped up, and turned into paper packaging for fast food companies like KFC, Taco Bell and McDonalds.”
The Southern Swampland region stretching from the Southeast Virginia coast across the Carolinas to the Georgia coast is an area of amazing natural beauty and unique biological diversity. It is home to unheralded aquatic and plant diversity including such species as the Venus flytrap and longleaf pine trees. Examples of wild natural places in the region that signify what the forests of the region could and should look like include the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia and North Carolina and the Croatan National Forest in North Carolina.
To view the press release from today's event, visit here.
A new factsheet is available from the Environmental Paper Network that provides both innovative and common sense advice as well as real life business examples of how to save money by reducing paper use. Oh yeah, it lowers your carbon footprint too. Check it out and start saving today.
Okay, I know I post about Catalog Choice too much on The Paper Planet, but its the hottest act in town right now. The latest big boost was a fantastic segment on the Today Show this week where a bunch of 4th graders speak such simple truths you simply can't watch it and then not sign up. The response has been huge and Catalog Choice has now made it possible for over 450,000 people to easily cancel millions of catalogs.
You can see the full YouTube video that these 4th graders in Brookline, Massachussetts made about their school's "Catalog Challenge" by clicking here.
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