Opinion: 2016, the year fake news became a thing!

“A wise man told me don’t argue with fools. Cause people from a distance can’t tell who is who.”

― Jay-Z

Not that it is news that it’s has existed fake-news. Fake stories and dubious tales to change the outcome and change the demeanour of a nation to swing them to a cause, if it is war, to annex a state or change internal policies; this been done through propaganda, done through blasting tunes on the radio and spreading ill-will on the air. This is well-known methods to sway public opinion.

You begin with altering the truth, making something unbelievable believable, because of former pattern and also history of certain actors that is known. Just as the American Government under George W. Bush, with Dick Cheney and others used all kind of tricks and foul play to target the regime under Saddam Hussain in Iraq; this done with the lie of massive loads of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), that we’re stockpiled and also imported from various sources even inside Niger and Chad. The Iraqi culprits couldn’t even find the nations on map if their lives depended on it. Still, the people behind spreading this news has walked proud-cock for decades and not asked for their favour to humanity. It isn’t just Tony Blair and George W. Bush who worked for an illegal war, also the men and woman who forced the news of ill-intent in Iraq; which wasn’t true.

“Duelfer portrays the United States as a lumbering superpower whose top policymakers, particularly in the White House and the Defense Department, lacked any basic understanding of Iraq’s history, motives and leaders. But he says Iraq also routinely misread American intentions and overestimated the capability of U.S. intelligence. He says that according to an Iraqi government account, Hussein once asked his top commanders if Iraq had any hidden weapons he didn’t know about” (…) “Duelfer describes numerous requests from senior Iraqi officials to start a dialogue with the United States to improve relations. “Each time I passed on such entreaties to Washington, there was never an answer,” he said. “If nothing else, they were missed opportunities for Washington to gain more knowledge.” (Lynch, 2009).

This is just proof of old history where the media together with government(s) are misleading the citizens to sway them for a war or conflict. As much as this can be countered with facts, the ones that swallow it with feelings will not change opinions with facts. Therefore with the current American election, certain stories has run and been eaten up, while not being true.

“The left has been hysterically pushing a new meme, “fake news.” While ostensibly neutral in practice it is subliminally weaponized as another lame vector — along with attacks on the electoral college and so forth — to undermine the legitimacy of the election of Donald Trump. Love Trump or hate him, he won” (…) “The real “fake news” scandal, of course, lies in the mass hallucination by the mainstream media that Hillary Clinton had a near lock on the general election. The overconfident reports of this reportedly led the Clinton campaign to make some unforced errors which just might (or might not) have cost her the election” (Benko, 2016).

Though other lies during the campaign we’re lizards inside Hillary Clinton’s body, that they had killed a dozen of people and we’re part of grand conspiracy, which apparently is bit funny in hindsight as the Trump Administration is more establishment than ever before, with more businessmen and close tightknit Wall-Street that Clinton was a hired puppet for. So the concern of these reports, the news that we’re created to cater the Trump supporters should be worrying as these conservative news and pages are spread like wildfire.

“The third person effect involves more, however, than simply a psychological tendency to assume that others are more easily influenced than oneself; this hypothesis also suggests that people may take significant actions based on these perceptions. It is these actions that ultimately comprise the ‘effect’ brought about by third person perceptions. For this component of the third person hypothesis evidence is again indirect, but suggestive. Some evidence of third person effects is documented in studies of candidate viability. Bartels (1988), for example, suggests that media coverage emphasizing ‘horse race’ aspects of presidential primaries affects perceptions of various candidates’ chances of winning. The perceived viability of candidates in turn influences the attitudes and behaviors of primary voters in choosing among presidential hopefuls. In this case, as in the third person effect, the influence of mass media is brought about indirectly through impersonal impact on how people think others are thinking. The ultimate effect in this case is a vote choice, but other changes in attitudes or behaviors may also result from third person processes. For example, perceptions of viability also have been found to influence reporters’ allotment of news coverage to various candidates (see Goldenberg and Traugott, 1984)” (Muntz, 1989).

This isn’t just pizza-gate, or Bruno Mars dancing on Mars. This is the rational reality that gets naïve men and woman sucked into these stories. They have been spread on Facebook, Twitter and other places to tell our friends and family of the articles from credible sources. Some stories are click-bait to get more people to read on the newspapers and other sites. These are so common that the articles you read after is looking credible, but apparently your scepticism should be true, because when it looks to real and beautiful the deal is fake. The same is also with the well written and articulated stories, that doesn’t have bound with reality and doesn’t seem to be legit.

That people would question this page, I understand, as I am not in writing in my own name. Still, most of the time, I use sources and reports to clarify my own understanding and what sway my opinion. Still, people should scrutinize me too, as much as I pick up wrong sources myself. There are some out there that want to change public opinion and want to bring some people down and get other to rule, or get silence over the acts of evil that is occurring as we speak.

Coler a fake-news writer:

“At any given time, Coler says, he has between 20 and 25 writers. And it was one of them who wrote the story in the “Denver Guardian” that an FBI agent who leaked Clinton emails was killed. Coler says that over 10 days the site got 1.6 million views. He says stories like this work because they fit into existing right-wing conspiracy theories” (…)”The people wanted to hear this,” he says. “So all it took was to write that story. Everything about it was fictional: the town, the people, the sheriff, the FBI guy. And then … our social media guys kind of go out and do a little dropping it throughout Trump groups and Trump forums and boy it spread like wildfire.” (Sydell, 2016).

It’s fake, but looks grand, right?

When you know that these stories hit a certain well-known perspective, a well-known agenda to be spread and to be fitted into believed atmosphere than you know that the Trump supporters would share it and believe it, even if Coler knew it all was just a lie. The lies that we’re to hurt the Clinton Presidential Campaign; this should worry and concern that major parts of the populations are following conspiracies over reality.

“But the incentives to create and distribute fake news are not only financial, and All-Star Macedonia Crying Eagle Number-One News and Views Very Good is not the only kind of fake-news website undermining the media infrastructure necessary for a functioning democracy. Trump’s nominee for national security adviser, a Jack D. Ripper type named Michael Flynn, has a particular fondness for publishing fake news to his Twitter account, as does Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conaway. Even nominally anti-Trump Republicans like Nebraska senator Ben Sasse have gotten into the fake-news business, entertaining ideas of “paid protesters” on the same day one of the most prolific fabricators of fake news admitted that the most widely shared account of paid protesters was wholly made up” (…) “This is, uhh, extremely weird, at best. Traditional news organizations, to state the obvious, are not built to survive an economy like that. You know who is, though? Politicians. The scary thing about “fake news” isn’t just that it’s financially incentivized by our new platform-gods, it’s that it’s socially and ideologically incentivized by them in ways that can’t be fixed without dismantling their entire operation. And, further, that the people best primed to benefit from “fake news” aren’t Macedonian teenagers hoping to buy guitars but leaders willing to untether themselves from truth in exchange for the powerful organizing capabilities of a passionate online audience” (Read, 2016).

We as citizens should let these fake news being spread on social media, neither on blogs nor on other platforms. The reality is that just like Ponzi-schemes, when it seems too real to be true, it most like is. The same can be said about Fake-News that is to cater one part of the population and to shelf the real ones. The time spent on fake-news should concern the media houses and newspapers as their legitimacy is under question, the main-stream media that has been under attack. It still is, and will be for a while as the people want the spread the fake ones.

The deception, this is the real danger, it is democratic that fake stories spread and that the population are involved in the reason for the existence. As long as facts doesn’t matter and the ignorance is growing of fact-checking is dying, this is a pre-existing state that will not die down, because as long as the clicks and spreading of these fake stories happens. They will continue to write them and spread them, as long as the Republican Establishment uses them and take them as real. The Main-Stream media will discuss it and put it into the spotlight.

We can do what we can and question our use of media houses and of what we find online. We should read with caution and question the sources. We should be critical too it and not take it for granted the articles, the news and that the reports has the time or the effort to look through the feed, the agencies input or even what the editor sees as important.

Media bias:

“However, it must also be acknowledged that the myth surrounding the existence of perceptible media bias is not without some small modicum of truth. Advocates of the existence of said bias commonly cite a number of professional patterns and standards of conduct historically employed by journalists (though are not exclusive to “liberal” journalists) in an effort to manipulate the depiction and depth of information presented each day to the American public. Such techniques discussed included six main types or styles of biases, including; gatekeeping information (i.e. purposefully selecting ideologically reaffirming stories for syndication), employing partisan source selection, omission of (potentially contradictory) facts, manipulating the degree of attention and calculable time devoted to a given issue, and finally, openly displaying narrative, subjective contempt for objective facts” (Quackenbush, 2013).

With this in mind, the third person effect, also the media bias. Together with this we can see why the effects of distrust to the media, as it itself created. Fake News will continue to flourish as long as the public cater to it and are in disbelief of the corporate media as much as mass media trying to control the belief of the public. Something they have lost control with all the platforms, as they are not just following Fox News, CNBC or the other main-stay TV Station and Radio, reading the one newspaper, but following digital media that can come from whatever source. This shows the current state and the state of the media in our time, as the fake news can be easily spread and change the opinions of the third persons.

These all are factors and we should question our own use of media, how we perceive the news and how we question the facts… we cannot stop the propaganda, neither fake news, we just have to clear the way and show the opposite waves and counter with productive arguments that can show the reality to those that eats into the fake, the not real and not believable news. Peace.  

Reference:

Benko, Ralph – ‘’Clinton Beats Trump’ Is The Real ‘Fake News’ Scandal’ (12.12.2016) link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphbenko/2016/12/12/clinton-beats-trump-is-the-real-fake-news-scandal/#69090a3529e6

Muntz, Diana C. – ‘THE INFLUENCE OF PERCEPTIONS OF MEDIA INFLUENCE: THIRD PERSON EFFECTS AND THE PUBLIC EXPRESSION OF OPINIONS*’ (1989)

Lynch, Colum – ‘Ex-CIA Investigator’s Book Describes Hunt for Weapons in Iraq, Saddam Hussein’s Final Days’ (31.01.2009) link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/30/AR2009013003430.html

Read, Max – ‘Donald Trump Isn’t Just Benefitting From ‘Fake News’ Websites — He Is One’ (18.11.2016) link: http://nymag.com/selectall/2016/11/trump-doesnt-just-benefit-from-fake-news-sites-he-is-one.html

Sydell, Laura – ‘We Tracked Down A Fake-News Creator In The Suburbs. Here’s What We Learned’ (23.11.2016) link: http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/11/23/503146770/npr-finds-the-head-of-a-covert-fake-news-operation-in-the-suburbs

Quackenbush, David – ‘Public Perceptions of Media Bias: A Meta-Analysis of American Media Outlets During the 2012 Presidential Election’ (2013).

Recent Corruption Cases: “if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.”

“A man who has never gone to school may steal a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.”

― Theodore Roosevelt

Thieving never stops through systematic and planned behaviour of state officials and government men and woman who wishes a short-cut to earning the big-bucks. It is an international problem. Again I will, blatantly address recent cases because this is something that doesn’t stop. Because of the greed and wish to be rich, in our time and before people and leaders isn’t happy with an ordinary life; they want to live in luxury instead of in normal household. Therefore they go to the extent of making sophisticated ways of trading and using government funds to steal and corrupt systems on their own behalf. Instead of delivering the service and institutions the citizens are supposed to have gained with this money and taxes. Here are some cases!

Back in time the Olympics we’re also corrupt:    

“The fact is that even this Olympic truce often broke down,” says Large. “Famously in 364 BC when soldiers from the city of Elis actually invaded the Olympics grounds in order to retrieve protection rights over the games, that had been taken away from them in the years before. So there was a bloody battle going on right during the wrestling competition” (…) “The Spartans were also a problem,” adds Large. “They had been banned from the Olympics for many years. They themselves thought the Olympics, in any event, were not bloody enough for their taste. But they did show up in the 420s and they got themselves banned once again for extra-curricular fighting.” (…) ““It’s often assumed somehow these ancient Games were purer than the modern ones,” Large concludes. “In fact, if anything they were even more corrupt, perhaps.” (Woolfe, 2016).

Cashgate of Malawi continues:

“Seven cabinet ministers are reported to be  implicated in the  K577 billion (about $856 million)   financial analysis report of what has been dubbed the Capital Hill ‘cash-gate’ scandal, named after the seat of government” (…) “He added that he had not received any names in connection with the audit query as yet” (…) “Last week I sent Chief Secretary to Auditor General [to get names] b,” said Mutharika, adding that he did not have any name of a minister” (…) “Where they  [media] get the names I don’t know,”he said” (…)“If anybody has got names please bring them to State House, I would like to see them and action will be taken,”Mutharika said after being asked by one citizen during the program  when he will act on the rotten ministers and cronies” (Chiluga, 2016),

In Guyana:

“Speaking about perceptions currently enveloping the political atmosphere in Guyana, Rohee said the subject is of importance to any society. “Perception is important in any society. As they say, perception is reality, and I’d like to emphasise that. And we can’t view that selectively; it is a general, universally accepted social and psychological phenomenon, that perception is reality,” he said” (…) “It is not for me to say that. Why should I say that? That is a general perception out there,” (…) “Said he: “They are helping to reinforce that perception; when we were in government and now that we are in the Opposition. And now the government is being driven by media houses to deal with that matter by setting up SARU [State Asset Recovery Unit]. So let’s take it from there.” (Singh, 2016).

In Trinidad:

“CENTRAL Division police arrested a building contractor on Friday as he attempted to bribe a Local Government councillor who had cautioned him about substandard work on a project in the district” (…) “The Fyzabad contractor was arrested at the office of People’s National Movement (PNM) councillor for California/Point Lisas, Alif Rodney Mohammed, at around 10 a.m” (…) “Mohammed said he was offered a $1,000 bribe to turn a blind eye to shoddy work on a project in his electoral district” (Kissoon, 2016).

In the Philippines:

“THE Office of the Ombudsman affirmed the indictment of Cebu Provincial Board Member Celestino “Tining” Martinez III and former Bogo City treasurer Rhett E. Minguez over allegedly irregular release of fertilizer fund amounting to P6 million in 2004” (…) ““As signatories, respondents should have raised reasonable questions on the legality or regularity of the transaction,” said Morales in her order” (…) “The Ombudsman also dismissed Martinez III from government service over the same case” (…) “In 2004, the Bogo City Government received six checks totaling to P6 million from the Department of Agriculture in Central Visayas for the procurement of fertilizer for rice and corn in 2004” (…) “Government auditors, in their 2006 report, said the foundation failed to liquidate the money. COA’s Audit Observation Memorandum also noted that the foundation failed to submit a list of previous projects implemented and that no accomplishment reports were submitted” (…) “State auditors also pointed out that officials failed to make representations with Sikap Yaman for the liquidation of the P6 million, while the Commission on Audit (COA) named the foundation as the supplier of 250 bottles of overpriced liquid fertilizers in Tuburan in 2004” (Dalipe, 2016).

In Ukraine:

“Ukrzaliznytsia Head Wojciech Balczun. He wrote: “We will change railway tickets booking system. Also discussed this topic during the board meeting. Moving in the direction of the elimination of so called “commercial booking”, the huge source of abuse and corruption. Like when it is impossible to buy a ticket while trains are going empty” (…) “The commercial agent should take all risks. In one form or another there will be a reservation for vulnerable groups and government authorities. Majority of tickets for the open!” Ukrzaliznytsia CEO stressed” (Censor.net.ua, 2016).

So as seen now the cases are all over. It is one continuation from before from Malawi as the President are wondering how the Media got the hold of names involved in the greatest scandal with government funds except for the Zambian Maize fiasco. The others are proof of how old the corruption of back to ancient Athens and their Olympics. Also actions in the Guyana, Trinidad, Philippines and Ukraine; so the tales of corruption happens everywhere and showing tales that isn’t the Fox News crap or something else biased nonsense. This is just common corrupt behaviour. And there are always more! Peace.

Reference:

Chiluga, Zawadi – ‘Malawi President to act on corrupt gangsters in cabinet: ‘Give me names of 7 cashgate ministers’ (09.08.2016) link: http://www.nyasatimes.com/malawi-president-act-corrupt-gangsters-cabinet-give-names-7-cashgate-ministers/#sthash.VgmukkdB.dpuf

Censor.net.ua – ‘Ukrzaliznytsia to change railway tickets booking system: majority of tickets to be availabe for open sale, – Balczun’ (10.08.2016) link: http://en.censor.net.ua/news/401159/ukrzaliznytsia_to_change_railway_tickets_booking_system_majority_of_tickets_to_be_availabe_for_open

Dalipe, Gerome M. – ‘Ombud affirms graft rule on Martinez’ (04.08.2016) link: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/local-news/2016/08/04/ombud-affirms-graft-rule-martinez-489427

Kissoon, Carolyn – ‘Contractor held: offered bribe to councillor’ (06.08.2016) link: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/20160806/news/contractor-held-offered-bribe-to-councillor

Singh, Raven – ‘Rohee rocks the boat –confirms PPP corrupt perception; declares ‘perception is reality’ (05.08.2016) link: http://guyanachronicle.com/rohee-rocks-the-boat-confirms-ppp-corrupt-perception-declares-perception-is-reality/

Woolf, Christopher – ‘The ancient Olympics were dirty, violent, corrupt affairs. There was even regular ‘doping.’’ (05.08.2016) link: http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-08-05/ancient-olympics-were-dirty-violent-corrupt-affairs-there-was-even-regular-doping

A look into the Coke’s BioPET-PlantBottle™ 1.0 – Is it really Green or is it Greenwashing?

We live in a time where big multinational companies who do what they can do their business. Buy for one, sell for two. That is capitalism and the dream of getting wealth and generating it. We live in a day and age where multinational companies have vast powers and can use it whatever way they like. They can if wanting to make as much of wealth to circus of companies and hide the earnings in a tax-haven in the Caribbean or in Lichtenstein. But this article or blog will be about that. It’s about another possibility that they can do.

Milking a special type of cow:

Something that isn’t right. Companies can if they feel tell stories and express themselves as they please. Until a certain extent they can if they want to make them look extra good, but if so they shouldn’t play in-between reality and fiction. Especially not portraying stories about their products – they can make their milk being squeezed out a most beautiful cow ever. Even if wasn’t most purebred highland cattle from the western islands of Scotland. Instead it’s made with some lame ass country cow. If a Milk producing company said their entire product was made from Highland Cattle, we as consumer expect the product to be that, right? So if the pieces of production and process is made with fractions of other milking cow it want be pure Highland. It will be milk, but not as promised. Some people would be devastated. Some people would call it fraud. And partly it is, even if pieces of it made with the milk. This piece here will be about similar way of acting one way, and acting another. While telling the public something else. This here is a kind of way to make something greener then it really is. It isn’t really green, but said so. In a way that mislead the public. Some people calls that way of acting for Greenwashing. It’s a nice way to express them in similar incidence. First certain words will be translated like PEF, PET, PTA and LRB. So that people will know what they are. After that I will show what a certain company called the Coca-Cola Company makes which a famous Bottle the famous PlantBottle™.

Words to know:

• polyethylene furanoate (PEF)
• polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
• purified terephthalic acid (PTA).
• liquid refreshment beverages (LRB)

Bio-Plastic information:

The first information is that it’s renewable made from Sugercane-polyethylene which has the ability to replace 30% of the petroleum that would have been used for making certain type of plastic. The other good piece of using bio-plastic will be lower-carbon footprint (Sugercane.org).

Hitachi company explains what PTA is: “Purified terephthalic acid (PTA) is made by causing a reaction between the secondary petroleum product paraxylene (PX) and acetic acid”. When Hitachi describes PET its like this: “Polyethylene terephthalate(PET) is a general-purpose plastic made through polycondensation of PTA with ethylene glycol (EG). This material has many outstanding properties: resistance to both heat and cold, transparency, electrical qualities, chemical proof and abrasion proof” (Hitachi).

How Coca-Cola endeavors to make the PlantBottle™:

Here is how it has gone from 2011, when Gevo made an agreement with the Coca-Cola Company to make the second generation plant-bottle with Isobutanol.  Further commenting on the important factor between Coca-Cola and GEVO: “The global market for PET is approximately 50 million metric tons and has a value of $100 billion, with approximately 30 percent used for plastic bottles. In this next generation of PlantBottle™ packaging, Coca-Cola plans to produce plastic beverage bottles made entirely from renewable raw materials” (Gevo, 2011).

In the same year (2011) Coca-Cola Company made already a deal with Virent: “signing multi-year, multi-million dollar Joint Development and Supply Agreements to scale-up Virent’s plant-based Paraxylene (PX), trademarked BioFormPX, as a route to commercially viable, 100% renewable, 100% recyclable PlantBottle PET resin. In the past, Coca Cola’s PlantBottles have included only 30% plant-based plastic. Virent’s chemical allows the remaining 70% of the bottle to be plant-based” (…) “Virent is one of three companies working with Coca-Cola on PlantBottle technology. The others are Colorado-based Gevo and Avantium, which is based in the Netherlands” (Lane, 2014).

In South Africa in Wadeville outside of Johannesburg, South Africa there is coming a new bottle-plant. This is Africa’s first: “Coca-Cola approved technology for carbonated soft drink bottles thus enabling the closure of the loop in the biggest sector in the beverage market. The 3000m² Phoenix PET plant, equipped with Starlinger technology, will supply an additional 14 000 tonnes of PET resin per year to the PET packaging industry. It will eventually divert an additional 22 000 tonnes of post-consumer PET bottles from landfills each year, reducing resource consumption, creating jobs and assisting industry in meeting its target of a 50% recycling rate for 2015” (Parkes, 2015).

Later JBF Industries and Coca-Cola went into a partnership in 2012 to produce bio-glycol that will be used in the new plant-bottle. This will end up with a deal and an agreement that will do this: “Construction on the new facility is expected to begin at the end of this year and will last 24 months. At full capacity, it is estimated the facility will produce 500,000 metric tons of material per year. By using plant-based materials instead of nonrenewable materials, the facility will remove the equivalent of 690,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, or the equivalent of consuming more than 1.5 million barrels of oil each year” (Mohan, 2012).

The Dreams of Coca-Cola Company and their PlantBottle™ 2.0:

A spokesman for Coke Scott Vitters commented in 2014 this: “Coca-Cola introduced the world to PlantBottle in 2009. The technology uses natural sugars found in plants to make ingredients identical to the fossil based ones traditionally used in polyester fiber and resins. PlantBottle packaging looks, functions and importantly recycles just like traditional polyester (or PET) plastic, but with a lower dependence on fossil fuels and a lighter environmental footprint on the planet” (…) “Today our first generation PlantBottle technology replaces one of the two ingredients that make PET plastic. Our long-term target is to realize a 100% renewable, fully recyclable plastic bottle. To realize this goal, Coca-Cola is investing millions in local technology companies – companies like Virent in Madison, Wisconsin; Gevo in Englewood, Colorado and Avantium in Amsterdam, the Netherlands” (Vitters, 2014).

“Continuing in rigid high-barrier packaging, polyethylene furanoate (PEF) bottle development remains on track. Avantium has entered into an agreement with ALPLA for development of PEF bottles, with the first bottles targeted to reach market by 2016. Avantium has also partnered with Coca-Cola and Danone in the development of PEF bottles”. (…) ”PEF is a next-generation, bio-based, recyclable polyester developed by Avantium on the basis of furanics technology. According to Avantium, PEF has 50-60 percent lower carbon footprint compared to petroleum-based PET” (Rosato, 2014).

Right now the Coca-Cola Company together with other industry packaging companies as Virent, Gevo and Avantium has made this possible: “The PlantBottle 2.0 represents an upgrade to the existing bio-based PlantBottle the beverage company already uses for some of its drinks. This substitute for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles has a 30% bio-based content, principally derived from Brazilian sugar cane supplied by Braskem”. In the future the same companies hope for “The 100% bioplastic bottle is the result of collaboration between Coca-Cola, Geno and Virent to perfect bio-purified terephthalic acid (PTA). Commercial rollout of PlantBottle 2.0 will take place over the next five years, culminating in a full replacement in 2020” (SustPack).

Ringier Plastics commented this: “From traditional PET to recyclable (also known as R-PET) to bio-based PET, technology and environmental properties have come a long way. PET generally consists of 70% terephthalic acid and 30% monoethylene glycol (MEG). But now it is quite possible to produce bio-based MEG from renewable raw materials instead of fossils. Coca-Cola is a pioneer is adopting bio-PET packaging with its PlantBottle™, producing the first ever fully-recyclable PET plastic beverage bottle using 30% of non-fossil material and resulting in less carbon footprint. Coca-Cola aims to convert all its plastic packaging to PlantBottle by 2020 and entered into a partnership with H.J. Heinz Co. to produce ketchup bottles using PlantBottle material” (Ringier Plastics, 2015).

The Marketing Companies making PlantBottle™ what it is:

“Fahrenheit 212 worked with Coca-Cola’s global packaging team to translate a complex and contentious advance in polymer production into a clear and compelling consumer proposition.  The PlantBottle brand name evolved from the concept development and strategic positioning work undertaken by Fahrenheit 212 and the PlantBottle icon, which has been now been featured on over 10 billion packages since its launch in 2010, was conceived and created by our in-house design team” (…) “In its first year, PlantBottle was launched in nine global markets, including Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Sweden and the United States across brands such as Coca-Cola, Sprite, Dasani and vitaminwater”  (Fahrenheit 212). The other marketing plan of Coca-Cola company was merged with another agency they did this: “Ogilvy & Mather’s campaign uses Coca-Cola’s iconic red and white color scheme and optical illusions to create intriguing images for the new bottle. The print ads all emphasize a way that plants make us happy, followed by the message that Coca-Cola’s PlantBottle is “Up to 30% made from plants” and “100% recyclable.”“ (Oster, 2014). One of Ogilvy & Mather’s ads just below.

It all sound beautiful doesn’t it. Mixing PEF and PET like its nothing? Plastic turned fantastic from petroleum based sort of bottle into plant heaven, right? Is there a reason why it just sounds so magnificent! If so, why does it for the last five years show up a dirty dozens of similar quotes from Scott Vitters in all kind of outlets from the Guardian to the New Zealand Scumbag post? That makes a brother like me curious. Especially when they been cooking this for so long.

Well, there isn’t everybody who has a piece of pay from Coca-Cola Company. This reports I come with now haven’t a clear connection or are in business with the Company. They are separated from it and are on their own. So you should see what their saying and be fascinated.

There many ways of telling how it really is: “Coke invented the Plant Bottle.  The Plant Bottle is made from sugarcane, a food source.  The Plant Bottle is a PET plastic bottle.  The Plant bottle is 100% PET, 70% made from oil and 30% from sugarcane.  The Plant Bottle is not biodegradable and lasts as long as the petroleum-based PET however a large segment of the population believes that the Plant Bottle is, in fact, biodegradable” (…) “Coke has invested heavily in rPET bottle-to-bottle recycling.  Coke is a large buyer of rPET pellets in China and reputedly is putting rPET in small” (…) “The largest producer of rPET pellets in China is tripling its capacity in 2011” (…) “Krones, one of the world’s largest developers and supplies of machinery to the bottling industry is introducing a series of super efficient PET washing and flaking recycling equipment.  rPET flakes and pellets can be manufactured at prices less than virgin PET” (N.Michaels).

Another example of renewable resources usage are PET bottles – called Plant Bottle. Those bottles are composed of PET, produced from terephthalic acid (70 % of mass) and ethylene glycol (30 % of mass). Terephthalic acid comes from oil, whereas glycol is produced from ethanol (deriving from fermentation of vegetable feedstock). Such bottles can be easily recycled, and they can be collected with other (classical) PET bottles. This partially bio-based PET saves global fossil resources and also reduces CO2 emissions. Plant Bottle is 20 % biobased (20 % of the carbon present in the material comes from renewable resources) and 30 % bio-massed (30 % of the mass of the material comes from renewable resources) and a simple scheme on figure 12 shows how the Plant Bottle is made (Plastice).

Gendell said in 2012 this about the PlantBottle: “The first complexity is that only a portion is plant-based, so the PET is also composed of some things that ought to stay within a technological closed loop” (…) “The other complexity is that there must be a mechanism by which the plant-based material may return to nature and participate in the biological cycle. Even if the first complexity were resolved by making PET entirely from plant-based materials (which is not truly possible today, considering all the catalysts and polymer chemistry whatsits that are not made from plants), the PET would still be an inherently non-biodegradable material” (Gendell, 2012).

In Denmark a Henrik Saugmandsgaard Øe is a Danish Consumer Ombudsman says this: “criticized Coke’s use of several marketing ploys, including the use of the word “plant,” excessive green colors and a circular-arrow logo inspired by the familiar symbol for recyclability. The ombudsman also noted a lack of documentation to support Coke’s claim that PlantBottle is “environmentally friendly” or has a “reduced carbon footprint.”” (…) “the bottle contains only a maximum of 15 percent plant material — a percentage he said hardly justifies the designation “PlantBottle.”” (…) “The Consumer Ombudsman requested the trader to indicate the minimum percentage of plant material in the bottle or to explain more clearly why the plant material proportion of the bottle was specified as ‘up to 15 percent” (Zara, 2013).

The issue with getting a 100% Bio-PET bottle is a big issue for Coca-Cola Company. Ordinary PET or 30% Bio-PET bottle has Petroleum-based component considering the bio-based in PEF. The Plastic Packaging Expert Gordon Bockner: “PEF molecule is a contaminant in the existing PET stream. A very small amount of PEF will (a) reduce the performance characteristic of the resulting PET/PEF blend and (b) neither will the blend be crystal clear and glossy, which are two of the key (marketing) attributes OPET. It is, therefore, not realistic to suggest that the two resins might be successfully blended to make a commodity LRB packaging resin” (Pierce, 2014).

Liz Baird the Environmental Consultant has said this about the PlantBottle:”When a company uses their marketing to appeal to the eco-conscious consumer, but they are spending more money marketing than they spend on being green, it’s called greenwashing” (…) “For example, there are some companies who tout their products as green, but if you look at the list of ingredients, palm oil is one of them. Harvesting palm oil is extremely dangerous to the orangutans” (EcoDaily, 2015).

After thought:

This here story here is about the 30% Bio Sugarcane based PET Resin and the rest of the bottle 70%. Not the newly released bottle that is supposable 100% BioBased Plant bottle. It hasn’t been addressed yet because I don’t see how it’s made possible and there aren’t reports or scientific how the whole PET resin is made. Therefore I won’t address it today. This here is just a full case on how Coca-Cola Company has described the infamous Plantbottle™. So since this original Plantbottle™ 1.0 is 30%. And call all natural you get the feel of a greenwash perception scheme. That isn’t fair for the consumer or society. It even got a Danish Ombudsman on the tail, but the same scenario and drop hasn’t made a fuzz where else it has been released, this is something about the leniency towards the Coca-Cola Company in these countries that has this specific bottle. That you have many companies on all sides of the globe focusing on how to make a Sugarcane bottle instead of a petroleum-based one, the first step was using 30% of the Bio PET resin. If they will fix it and make it, also make sure that it can contain the material that it’s talking about. It can’t be either or. Has to been made for a certain type of PET-Resin to make it hard enough to be a bottle for production-line and to contain the sugar-caffeine-carbonated-liquid called Coke from Coca-Cola Company.

Wonder how it will be 100% compared to the 1.0 type of bottle. That will be another story. Would be another story to see how the produce and production of Plantbottle 2.0 who supposed to be 100% made of sugarcane. And I might go into detail about that if I get the hold of that information. I can’t write it out of the thin air. Got to taste the carbonated sugar-water and then get the feel of the flavors and ways. Peace.

Reference:

EcoDaily – ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green – Labeling Can Be A Guise’ (01.07.2015) Link: http://ecodaily.org/its-not-easy-being-green-labeling-can-be-a-guise/

Parkes, Lisa – ‘Africa’s first Bottle-2-Bottle Plastic Recycling Plant Opens its Doors in Wadeville’ (13.05.2015) Link: http://www.petco.co.za/ag3nt/system/about_petco_dynamic_blog.php

Oster, Erik – ‘Ogilvy & Mather NY Introduces PlantBottle for Coca-Cola’ (09.06.2015) Link: http://www.adweek.com/agencyspy/ogilvy-mather-ny-launches-plants-make-us-happy-for-coca-cola/67789

Mohan, Anne Marie – ‘Coca-Cola enters partnership to expand PlantBottle production’ (27.09.2012) Link: http://www.greenerpackage.com/bioplastics/coca-cola_enters_partnership_expand_plantbottle_production

Fahrenheit 212 – ‘Coca-Cola PlantBottle – Defining the Consumer Proposition for Bio-PET’ Link: http://www.fahrenheit-212.com/coca-cola-plantbottle/

Rosato, Don – ‘Green plastic barrier packaging material and process advances’ (28.07.2014) Link: http://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/green-plastic-barrier-packaging-material-and-process-advances/food-beverage

Pierce, Lisa McTigue – ‘PEF will not oust PET for beverage bottles anytime soon’ (25.07.2014) Link: http://www.packagingdigest.com/resins/pef-will-not-oust-pet-for-beverage-bottles-anytime-soon140724

N.Michaels: ‘Why and When will Bottle-to-Bottle rPET Technology Dominate?’ (03.12.2010) Link: http://theplanetbottle.net/news/2010/12/why-and-when-will-bottle-to-bottle-rpet-technology-dominate/#sthash.QksuvCPg.dpuf

Lane, Isabel – ‘Coke invests further in scaling Virent’s paraxylene production for PlantBottle’ (09.09.2014) link: http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2014/09/09/coke-invests-further-in-scaling-virents-paraxylene-production-for-plantbottle/

Gendell, Adam – ‘The catch behind Coca-Cola’s switch to plant-based bottles’ (10.10.2012) Link: http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2012/10/10/catch-behind-coca-colas-switch-plant-based-bottles

Ringier Plastics – ‘Bio-based PET shows the way forward’ (07.05.2015) Link: http://www.industrysourcing.com/article/bio-based-pet-shows-way-forward

Vitters, Scott – ‘Statement of Scott Vitters General Manager, PlantBottle Innovation Platform The Coca-Cola Company United States Senate Committee on Agriculture Nutrition and Forestry United States Senate June 17, 2014’

PTA – ‘Production process for purified terephthalic acid (PTA)’ Link: http://www.hitachi.com/businesses/infrastructure/product_site/ip/process/pta.html

PET – ‘Production process for polyethylene terephthalate (PET)’ Link: http://www.hitachi.com/businesses/infrastructure/product_site/ip/process/pet.html

Sugarcane.org – ‘Bioplastics’ Link: http://sugarcane.org/sugarcane-products/bioplastics

SustPack – ‘Coca-Cola Gives Expo Debut To 100% Bio-Based PlantBottle’ Link: http://www.sustainability-in-packaging.com/news/coca-cola-gives-expo-debut-to-100-bio-based-plantb

Gevo – ‘Bio-based Isobutanol to Enable Coca-Cola to Develop Second Generation PlantBottle™ Packaging’ link: http://www.gevo.com/?casestudy=bio-based-isobutanol-to-enable-coca-cola-to-develop-second-generation-plantbottle-packaging

Zara, Christopher – ‘Coca-Cola Company (KO) Busted For ‘Greenwashing’: PlantBottle Marketing Exaggerated Environmental Benefits, Says Consumer Report’ (03.09.2013) Link: http://www.ibtimes.com/coca-cola-company-ko-busted-greenwashing-plantbottle-marketing-exaggerated-environmental-benefits

Patent – ‘Method of making a bottle made of fdca and diol monomers and apparatus for implementing such method’ (31.08.2012): http://www.google.com/patents/WO2014032731A1?cl=en

Plastice – ‘Bioplastics – Opportunity for the Future’ (2013) Link: http://www.central2013.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/Downloads/outputlib/Plastice_Bioplastics_Opportunity_for_the_Future_web.pdf