We are often told that curtailing the freedom of business is coercive and undemocratic. But by what democratic principle should corporations and billionaires decide the fate of current and future generations? When a government releases them from regulation, it allows them to determine whether other people live or die. No one elected them to do so.
Even businesses with apparently strong credentials cannot be trusted with this extraordinary power. Take Marks and Spencer, famous for its “Plan A” environmental standards. Its goal, it says, is “to be a zero waste business across all that we do … we already send zero waste to landfill.” But a few days ago, it commissioned a wraparound ad in the Metro newspaper, in which a video screen was embedded, promoting Christmas jumpers. The screen, battery, electronics and casing were designed for a single use.
It’s hard to think of a more profligate form of disposability. Marks and Spencer’s defence of this disgusting waste is that “the video screens can be recycled via electrical appliance collection points”. In other words, it’s up to the people who were handed the free paper to clear up the mess the company made (not that these complex materials can be fully recycled, anyway). I expect 99% of the screens went straight to landfill.
Read the piece by Guardian columnist, George Monbiot - “Platform for the Planet.”
