Plastic Tees - Coca Cola’s Plastic Fashion Stunt

Coca-Cola’s Plastic Tees

Is it a cynical stunt? Should we see these new Plastic Tees as the future of ecologically sustainable clothing? Wal-Mart stores across the USA will display Coca-Cola apparel created from recycled plastic bottles. They maybe colourful t-shirts but they aren’t so ecological after all, they have actually blended recycled plastic bottles with cotton and besides they give Coca-Cola a chance to extend their marketing reach even further! Behind the somewhat obvious slogans such as “Make your Plastic Fantastic” and “Rehash your Trash”, is a company desperately trying to “appear to” reduce its Carbon Footprint.

I have offered an alternative of my own, essentially free t-shirt designs for people to have printed or print themselves locally, on used clothing wherever possible. Recently I designed a t-shirt to spread the word for a political cause, i.e boycotting the Beijing Olympics 2008 and I offered this option as a way for anyone to be able to join in the protest.

My point is that corporations will never be green, it is not in their nature to be, they are profit hungry animals the corporations. Essentially as with all economic systems, expansion and growth keep the rich rich, decline reduces the value of everything including share ownership, corporate career advancement. I’m telling you most of this junk won’t be here in another decade or so. Imagine trucking a load of cans of Cola across the States in a few decades, imagine the fuel bill. If you can’t make it locally, forget it. Most plastic is formed for the purposes of packaging, and essentially image branded packaging. The most ecological path that Coca-Cola and all the corporate giants can take is closure.

I’m talking myself out of a career too, I know, no one can sell to anyone if the product has to travel. No one will want to pay double for shipping, or quadruple, but it’s going to happen, the only wise investment out there now is oil. Without it nothing can continue, why? In the early eighties I began to discuss my ecological concerns with my teachers and parents, most of the time they laughed at my fears, they seemed to be out of place back then, now I suppose I’m jumping ahead again. But in all honesty, if you can’t do it yourself, look after what you buy. I honestly remember kids with hand-me-down clothes as a child, I only had a younger sister, but friends with older brothers were wearing crazy flared trousers and heavy metal t-shirts, we didn’t care then. The eighties consumer culture killed the counter-culture. There is no way that I can turn to a drinks manufacturer as the saviour of the planet. More likely the kid down the road selling local squeezed lemonade!

Back to Coca-Cola’s plastic t-shirts, they say they are intended to promote recycling of used beverage bottles into renewable, reusable products. But how about this Coca-Cola - REMEMBER GLASS? I’m sure they do, the thing about glass is you can keep it, you can wash it, then you can use it again. But why stop there? How many other things could we just use again and again without buying more - hold on it’s big business having a fit about that.

Everything is made to fall apart nowadays. If you’re British or Indian you may know what a Morris Minor is. They were cars that were built to last forever. If something went wrong it was simple enough to replace, cheap and easily fixed. Nowadays business would describe that as “add-ons” - like merchandising for movies and bands, most of them make more money from the Coca-Cola sponsorship and t-shirts, posters, etc. The actual product, whatever it maybe, will be guaranteed NOT to last a lifetime these days. There’s the fundamental problem, the richest of the rich don’t want to stop expanding. All that energy fuel, and resources just to prove that it is okay to produce thousands and thousands of tonnes of plastic every year as long as you make t-shirts from them as well.

In this fabulous blend of old plastic bottles and cotton - is it actually recycled cotton? I wonder….

Eco Hero of the Minute Stuart Kronauge, vice president, marketing Coca-Cola North America was quoted as saying “These fun t-shirts merge trend with consciousness, reminding shoppers that small steps – like recycling a few bottles – can go a long way towards helping to preserve our environment.” Worse still is the pomposity of Coca-Cola and Wal-Mart, to believe they can lecture the rest of us when they must be two of the most major retail polluters on the planet. Get a grip and be honest about it - this race is doomed to destruction - check out Rome or Greece or Egypt - just don’t patronize us with this idea that by helping the corporates we can save the world. Roll on the end of civilisation.

One more point, the earth won’t die first, it can repair itself, it can even create a whole new evolutionary ladder if it must. We on the other hand can’t, all we can do is choose, agricultural subsistence forever or mass retail consumption for another decade tops.

Okay now go and buy one of my t-shirts lol.