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Pluralistic: 26 Apr 2022

   [26Apr2022.jpg?w=840&ssl=1] [26Apr2022.jpg?w=840&ssl=1]

Today's links

     * Bottled water monopolist admits recycling is bullshit: "Personal
       responsibility" and "caveat emptor."
     * This day in history: 2012, 2017
     * Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current
       writing projects, current reading
     __________________________________________________________________

   An aerial photo of the Pacific Gyre Garbage Patch, acres of floating,
   immortal plastic bottles. An aerial photo of the Pacific Gyre Garbage
   Patch, acres of floating, immortal plastic bottles.

Bottled water monopolist admits recycling is bullshit (permalink)

   "Puffery" is a funny word! It's the word that lawyers use when their
   clients are accused of unlawful speech acts, such as fraud or libel. In
   that context, "puffery" (or, even better, "mere puffery") is a synonym
   for bullshit.

   Recycling is puffery. Which is to say, recyling is bullshit.

   Plastics recycling has its origins in a "puffery" campaign. In 1973,
   Exxon researchers told the company that there was no feasible way to
   recycle plastics, and that there likely never would be.

   https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/14/they-knew/#doing-it-again

   Exxon sprang into action! They created a puffery campaign! They
   invented the little recycling logo, three arrows pointing at each
   other, telling us that plastic was part of a new, "circular" economy.
   Oil is made into plastic, plastic is used, plastic is recycled.
   Everybody wins!

   We - the "consumers" (ugh) - bought it. We bought the plastic, sure,
   but we bought the puffery, too. We sorted our plastic, washed it, set
   it out on the curb. 90% of it was never recycled. 90% of it never will
   be.

   I remember when recycling came to Ontario. Prior to our curbside
   blue-boxes, we had refillable bottles: standard beer and soda bottles
   that you redeemed for a deposit so they could be returned to a depot,
   washed, and sent out to bottlers. This meant that it was harder for the
   likes of Coke to brand their bottles - but it also meant we didn't fill
   our oceans, landfills, and blood and tissues with immortal petroleum
   candidates.

   Maintaining the recycling puffery took work, because reality has a
   completely unfair anti-plastic bias. Every couple of years, we'd learn
   something else about how horrible, harmful, and catastrophic plastics
   were, and the industry would spring into action with innovative new
   puffery.

   For example, as our public spaces filled up with immortal plastic
   waste, the plastics industry hired a Italian guy to dress up like a
   Native American and weep by a roadside about the scourge of
   "littering," in an exciting puffery campaign that blamed us, the
   littering public, for despoiling our cities and roads:

   https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-indian-cry
   ing-environment-ads-pollution-1123-20171113-story.html

   That "Keep America Beautiful" campaign was created to shift the blame
   for environmental devastation from the companies that profited
   handsomely from it to you and me, by invoking America's state religion:
   "personal responsibility." Like other orthodox religious doctrines
   (like selling papal indulgences, say), "personal responsibility" lets
   powerful people off the hook and burdens the rest of us.

   Like when the car was invented and thousands of people who couldn't
   afford cars were slaughtered by the tiny minority of Americans who
   could afford them: the auto industry did a puffery, inventing the idea
   of "jaywalking," blaming the dead for their own murders:

   https://marker.medium.com/the-invention-of-jaywalking-afd48f994c05

   The automotive Big Lie never died: we still routinely blame
   "pedestrians" (another puffery!) for their personal failings when they
   are killed or maimed by cars. Today, people with self-driving car
   brain-worms are saying that EVs' propensity for running people over is
   a problem with people, not "AI":

   https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/30/death-to-all-monopoly/#pogo-stick-pr
   oblem

   But the recycling Big Lie is (finally) wearing thin, as plastics
   advocates run out of ideas for new puffery, and as the issues of water
   justice, waste disposal and health come together in a devastating
   assault.

   The most obvious villain in the recycling lie is the bottled water
   industry, which manages to embody several kinds of evil at once, from
   expropriating watersheds to filling our bodies with microplastics. To
   top it all off, bottled water is one of those increasingly unpopular
   monopolies: Bluetriton (nee Nestle Waters) is a play by One Rock
   Capital Partners, which bought and rolled up "Poland Spring, Pure Life,
   Splash, Ozarka, and Arrowhead, among many other brands."

   A Bluetriton Instagram post reading 'Water stewardship is an important
   pillar of our business. To support that pillar, our Natural Resources
   Team in Allentown, Pennsylvania teamed up with an aquatic biologist to
   help enhance the native trout population. The team built organically
   made, self-sustaining pools, creating an ideal habitat for trout in a
   headwater stream.' The accompanying illustration shows a pair of gloved
   hands reaching into a clear wilderness stream. A Bluetriton Instagram
   post reading 'Water stewardship is an important pillar of our business.
   To support that pillar, our Natural Resources Team in Allentown,
   Pennsylvania teamed up with an aquatic biologist to help enhance the
   native trout population. The team built organically made,
   self-sustaining pools, creating an ideal habitat for trout in a
   headwater stream.' The accompanying illustration shows a pair of gloved
   hands reaching into a clear wilderness stream.

   Bluetriton is a fucking nightmare of a company, the kind of firm that
   illegally siphons water out of national forests. But in its public
   communications, Bluetriton paints itself as an environmental steward:

   https://www.instagram.com/p/CPWZTxHFQ1r/

   Central to those claims are Bluetriton's boasts about its recyclable
   plastics: "We use #1PET plastic, which can be used over and over
   again!...100% recyclable ... and can be used for new bottles and all
   sorts of new, reusable things."

   As Sharon Lerner writes for The Intercept, these recycling lies were a
   bridge too far. In August, the Earth Island Institute sued Bluetriton
   for false advertising under DC's onsumer Protection Procedures Act.

   https://theintercept.com/2022/04/26/plastic-recycling-bottled-water-pol
   and-spring/

   The lawsuit's claims were straightforward: Bluetriton claims its
   bottles are "recylcable" but it knows that there's no cost-effective
   way to recycle them, and so the bottles end up in landfills or floating
   in the ocean.

   https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21746325-earthislandinstitute-v
   bluetritoncomplaintpacket

   Enter puffery. Last month, Bluetriton's lawyers submitted a motion to
   dismiss, arguing that "the statements at issue here constitute
   non-actionable puffery." They said that "BlueTriton's representation of
   itself as `a guardian of sustainable resources' and `a company who, at
   its core, cares about water' is vague and hyperbolic."

   https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21716159-3422-mtd

   Sometimes, the priesthood of the American religious doctrine of
   "personal responsibility" slip up and call this doctrine by its plainer
   name: "Caveat Emptor." That is, "If you get hurt or ripped off, it's
   your fault."

   But caveat emptor is incompatible with "puffery." If Bluetriton's
   argument is that people know what they're buying and choose it anyway,
   that argument collapses when the company admits that it lies to its
   customers about what they're buying.

   In truth, the American religious doctrine is neither "personal
   responsibility" (otherwise CEOs who preside over crimes like stealing
   water from a national forest would go to jail). It's also not "caveat
   emptor" (or companies would tell us the truth so we could choose
   wisely).

   The true bedrock of American religious dogma is, in the words of Frank
   Wilhoit: "exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom
   the law protectes but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law
   binds but does not protect."

   https://crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/liberals-against-progressives/#com
   ment-729288
     __________________________________________________________________

   [wayback-machine-hed-796x416.png?resize=796%2C416&ssl=1]
   [wayback-machine-hed-796x416.png?resize=796%2C416&ssl=1]

This day in history (permalink)

   #10yrsago Sneak attack: surprise amendment makes CISPA worse, then it
   is voted and passed a day ahead of schedule. Congress just deleted the
   Fourth Amendment
   https://www.techdirt.com/2012/04/26/insanity-cispa-just-got-way-worse-t
   hen-passed-rushed-vote/

   #5yrsago The next iteration of Alexa is designed to watch you while you
   get dressed
   https://www.vice.com/en/article/ez3qzk/amazon-echo-look-bedroom-camera

   #5yrsago Senate staffers issued ID cards whose "security chips" turn
   out to be just pictures of a chip
   https://www.techdirt.com/2017/04/25/senate-id-cards-use-photo-chip-rath
   er-than-actual-smart-chip/
     __________________________________________________________________

   [colophonimages.jpeg?w=840&ssl=1]
   [colophonimages.jpeg?w=840&ssl=1]

Colophon (permalink)

   Currently writing:
     * Picks and Shovels, a Martin Hench noir thriller about the heroic
       era of the PC. Yesterday's progress: 538 words (87481 words total).
     * A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING
     * Vigilant, Little Brother short story about remote invigilation.
       FIRST DRAFT COMPLETE, WAITING FOR EXPERT REVIEW
     * Moral Hazard, a short story for MIT Tech Review's 12 Tomorrows.
       FIRST DRAFT COMPLETE, ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION
     * Spill, a Little Brother short story about pipeline protests. FINAL
       DRAFT COMPLETE
     * A post-GND utopian novel, "The Lost Cause." FINISHED
     * A cyberpunk noir thriller novel, "Red Team Blues." FINISHED

   Currently reading: Analogia by George Dyson.

   Latest podcast: Big Tech Isn't Stealing News Publishers' Content

   Upcoming appearances:
     * The Power of Utopia, The Center for Artistic Activism Apr 28
       https://c4aa.org/2022/04/revolutionizing-activism-the-power-of-utop
       ia
     * OpenJSWorld Austin Keynote, Jun 8
       https://events.linuxfoundation.org/openjs-world/program/schedule/
     * UK Competition and Markets Authority Data Technology and Analytics
       conference, Jun 15-16
       https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cma-data-technology-and-analytics-co
       nference-2022-registration-308678625077

   Recent appearances:
     * Launch for Jennifer Egan's "Candy House" (Vancouver Public Library)
       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cbxMLxDkPM
     * Surveillance Capitalism, Borders, and the Police (Tech Workers
       Coalition San Diego)
       https://youtu.be/sN8iD-nTUWo
     * Breaking Free From the Corporate Matrix (Audiblegate podcast)
       https://audiblegate.podbean.com/

   Latest book:
     * "Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone
       technothriller for adults. The Washington Post called it "a
       political cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits
       of revolution and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies
       from Dark Delicacies
       https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface
       .html
     * "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet
       analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a
       solution.
       https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8
       135e6744d59 (print edition:
       https://bookshop.org/books/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism/9
       781736205907) (signed copies:
       https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2024/Available_Now%3A__How_to_Destro
       y_Surveillance_Capitalism.html)
     * "Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new
       introduction by Edward Snowden:
       https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed
       copies here:
       https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Hom
       eland.html
     * "Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime,
       gender, and kicking ass. Order here:
       https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized,
       signed copy here:
       https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1562/_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer.html.

   Upcoming books:
     * Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and
       Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin,
       nonfiction/business/politics, Beacon Press, September 2022
     __________________________________________________________________

   [by.svg.png?w=840&ssl=1] [by.svg.png?w=840&ssl=1]

   This work licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
   That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially,
   provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link
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   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

   Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are
   included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the
   basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.
     __________________________________________________________________

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   "When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy"
   DeVilla

Like this:

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   Author Cory DoctorowPosted on April 26, 2022Tags big oil, bottled
   water, climate, greenwashing, microplastics, personal responsibility,
   plastics, pollution, puffery

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