Posted on 11/28/2001 11:13:59 AM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
Students and local activists are participating in a national campaign to force office supplier Staples to change the way it does business.
On Nov. 13 about 30 people, including Ithaca College, Cornell, and Tompkins Cortland Community College students, held a protest in front of the Ithaca Staples on Route 13. They demand that the store phase out its use of old-growth paper and paper made from national forests and that it offer 100 percent post consumer waste paper. They also want Staples to educate consumers, employees, and suppliers about the benefits of recycled paper.
Aubryn Sidle, of the Cornell Society for Natural Resource Conservation, said the protest was one of 206 simultaneous "Stop Staples" demonstrations held across the country. Previously, national rallies were held in the spring and the fall of 2000.
Tom Nutile, Staples' vice president of public relations for the Massachusetts-based retailer, said Staples is proud of its record of selling recycled products and promoting recycling within its business.
"Typically, what activist groups do in this day and age is go after the market place," Nutile said. "And the typical strategy is to target the largest company within that sector because it's high profile."
But Sidle said size isn't the only reason the retailer is being targeted. "While it definitely is the largest and fastest growing office supply store, it also has one of the worst records," Sidle said via e-mail. "Ninety-seven percent of the paper products Staples sells comes from virgin wood fiber." She added, "Office Max, which is right across the street from Staples, even offers 100 percent post consumer paper, while Staples fails to do so."
Nutile said each Staples store sells almost 400 paper-based recycled products and has a number of products with high post consumer waste content. He said Staples carries two types of 30 percent post consumer waste recycle papers and recently introduced a 50 percent post consumer waste recycled paper. Nutile adds that Staples has been working hard to promote recycled products because "the American public hasn't yet embraced them whole-heartedly."
Sidle acknowledged that environmentalists are excited about the new 50 percent post consumer brand. But she said the move is a direct result of the "Stop Staples" campaign.
Staples is currently working on a feasibility study for the activists demands, Sidle said.
Cornell sophomore Jennifer Heinlein, who helped organize the protest, said the protesters will decide whether to rally again depending on the results of the study.
Heinlein said that, as America's old growth forests dwindle to below 5 percent, retailers have an obligation to use environmentally friendly products. But she believes the campaign is making inroads because it makes economic sense for retailers to use post consumer waste recycled paper.
"People are responding to the economic incentive," she said.
Meanwhile, Sidle said there is a letter circulating the U.S. Congress asking Staples Chief Executive Officer Ronald Sargent to agree to the demands of the campaign. The SNRC is encouraging local House Representative Maurice Hinchey to sign the letter.
The spawn of Al Gore. They care more about a tree than the families of the victims of those who died on 9/11.
Therefore, if we really want to fight global warming, we should cut down these old growth forests and replant them with young trees.
Even this, if true, is inappropriate. It is not Staples' job to tell the customers what to buy, it's the customers' job to tell Staples what to sell. If the greenie-weenies have enough purchasing power, they will have no problem getting Staples to sell whatever refurbished, recycled crap they want. Otherwise, they should shut up and ride off into the sunset.
(maybe Staples secretly hired them...)
I don't know why I am still shocked and incensed every time I read a story like this--I should be completely accustomed to this sort of inverted thinking (or lack thereof) by now.
Dear Libs who agree with the anti-Staplers:
As it has so eloquently been stated above, it is not the job of Staples to "educate customers on the benefits of recycled paper." That would be the job of the pro-recycled paper groups.
If you believe strongly in this, or any other issue, it is up to you--as a private citizen or collection of private citizens acting in concert--to make your case with the buying public. "Educate" consumers. If the public buys into your philosophy and shares your concern, the demand will shift and so will Staples policy.
One must understand that the well intentioned minions at the bottom of the extreme-enviorn movement are well intentioned yet hopelessly duped souls. Unaware that they are acting on behalf of a small group of anti-Capitalist, anti-American, socialist Marxist leftovers--these usually young and good-natured activists are taken advantage of by the pursuit of what sounds like a worthwhile cause.
Of course, the rhetoric is built on shaky premises from beginning to end. Blind allegiance to the efforts of these self-proclaimed gurus of good is a likely occurrence when ambitious young idealists are exposed to their claims and accept them as gospel. Indeed, on the rare occasion of further scrutiny by an enterprising potential recruit, the curtain is pulled back and the Wizard--along with the inherent fallacy of the claims--is exposed.
The people at the top of this do-gooder ponzi scheme, the primary architects and beneficiaries of such programs, carry one lone objective onto the battlefield of ideas. They wish for nothing less than the reduction of your personal freedoms--one by one--as a means to the subversion of our freedoms as a whole.
What they could not do by way of revolution in the 20th Century, they continue to pursue through other means. (Take over of the Universities and education system, expansion of government socialism, judicial activism and subversion of legislative powers, perversion of the legal system, confiscation of personal property and freedoms based on environmental premises and so forth...)
We cannot allow an erosion of our liberties at the hands of enviro-terrorists who wish to strong-arm corporate America into "seeing things their way." This is unacceptable. If gone unchecked, the encroachment will inch further and further toward a total loss of freedom and choice in the market place and completely subvert our way of life.
(Just an aside, but why are so many of these characters involved in protests like these women?)
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