Inger Andersen:
Let’s think about it, we liquefy a lot of stuff that in just 20 years ago was not liquid, let’s take soap for laundry detergent, it’s largely liquid, certainly in the U.S. market, it used to be powder, and therefore it could be transported in a carton box. Let’s think about soap that we wash our hands with it used to be in a bar. And now we need the convenience of one pump.
We have to ask ourselves if all that is worth it, when we understand that that liquid application of the product for our convenience, yes, but it is very, very inconvenient for the environment. So, we need to rethink and redesign the products themselves. We need to make sure that we minimize that wasteful single use plastic bag that we’re going to be using for 10 minutes as we carry five tomatoes home from the store.
And then thereafter, depending on the kind of polymer it could be between 100 and 1,000 years in the landfill. That’s just not very efficient use of a scarce resource.
But I think that there are certainly industry leaders that are saying, look, this is actually something that if we don’t get it right, it detracts from our shareholder value. And it detracts from the pride that our workers have in this product if it’s fobbing out around in the in the ocean. This is not good for business, it’s not good for the brand. So let’s find solutions to it.