Closed Loop Fund Open for Business

      With the recent formation of the Closed Loop Fund, a multi-corporate collaborative effort to increase recycling rates throughout the US and recoup an estimated $11.4 billion annually in discarded packaging, the concept of big business influencing environmental policy is as crucial an element to the future of the eco-movement as ever. Of course, corporations backing recycling efforts is not inherently bad, nor are the big businesses doling out the big bucks, but when economic factors are brought into the mix of saving the environment and developing sustainability efforts a close look must be taken at the motivators for their actions, assuming that they are not completely egalitarian in their roots. For example, the Closed Loop Fund is proposing a system of loans throughout which the organization can channel money into local municipalities with the contingency that the governments will pay back the loan (often with a 0%  on principal and a 5% annual interest rate) in a timely manner and that the money be used to increase the diversion rates of these valuable materials. Now this is not inherently a bad thing, but as I’m sure Spencer would agree, this is not enough of a leap in the right direction. These corporations may be doing a more right thing than they have been, but this newly acquired producer responsibility (or is it newly resurrected?) has not arisen without external forces looming overhead, mainly the threat of possible governmental regulations, which this Closed Loop Fund hopes to side step by presenting a positive image to the public and legislators.

      This trend goes all the way back to the 1970s and the formation of the original widespread environmental movement referenced in MacBride’s book. She discusses the ways in which the EAC was funded in its early years by the BEACC, a group of businessmen who raised funds for the environmental organization. Essentially, the EAC was in bed with the businesses responsible for the large amount of disposable food and beverage containers being trashed, companies that people like Kretchmer tried to fight against during his tenure in office. He pushed for governmental regulations to discourage the proliferation and production of these packaging materials, but was shut down by the corporations who thrived on this system of waste. As soon as the BEACC pulled its support of the EAC in 1973, the organization (EAC) had a miraculous change of heart, as well as a change of management, and began to align itself more closely with the propositions of Kretchmer, though he had been ousted before this shift took place.  

      This is the fear I have when dealing with these large corporations and their interests, that they will exert an enormous amount of control over environmental organizations who begin with a purely positive, utopian idea in mind, but become ensnared in the policies of international conglomerates and begin pandering to the interests of the global markets.