Matt Palmer was part of protest at Innocent Drinks' headquarters
Matt Palmer being arrested at Innocent Drinks HQ
|
A 48-year-old man from Putney has been arrested and charged while dressed as a strawberry while protesting at the office of a drinks company.
This Monday morning (22 June), Matt Palmer joined nine other members of direct action group Plastics Rebellion who staged a sit-in at 9am at Fruit Towers, Ladbroke Grove, headquarters of Innocent Drinks, which is majority-owned by Coca-Cola.
He was arrested along with a pear and a pineapple as well as two other people not dressed as fruit. They were all charged with aggravated trespass and released on bail at 11.30pm.
The sit in was a protest against Innocent Drinks’ “Little Drinks Big Dreams” campaign which the group describes as ‘greenwashing’. They believe Innocent is exploiting the issue of climate change to sell more of its product even though its activities are environmentally harmful.
Earlier in the month Plastics Rebellion had demanded that Innocent withdraw the TV advert promoting the campaign and apologise for misleading the public by claiming that buying its drinks contributed to “fixing up the planet”.
An invitation to Innocent to discuss the matter received what Plastics Rebellion describe as an evasive reply.
Plastics Rebellion sit-in at the company's Ladbroke Grove office
A spokesperson for Plastics Rebellion said, “Innocent claim to be ‘sustainable capitalists’, ‘working to improve resilience to supply risks like climate change, water scarcity, soil degradation (all caused by intensive monoculture farming) because ... these have become very real business risks’. Yet their new factory in Rotterdam will produce 32,000 new plastic bottles per hour. “
Coca-Cola, majority owner of Innocent, is the world’s top plastic polluter for the third year running, according to Break Free from Plastic.
A spokesperson for Innocent Drinks said, "innocent is always sympathetic and receptive to organisations which are working to safeguard the planet for future generations, and responded to an initial visit by Plastics Rebellion and its specific questions around our businesses sustainability measures before this latest visit.
"innocent has always been a mission-driven business, and we are always striving to reduce environmental impact in everything we do. As part of this commitment, we have been a B Corp since 2018 and our CEO is co-leader of the Better Business Act (BBA) ¬– a campaign to make UK businesses more responsible and accountable. We are on target for full carbon neutrality, right across our business and supply chain by 2030 at the latest.
"innocent is part of schemes including the Ellen MacArthur New Plastics Economy (with which we work very closely on circularity) and the UK Plastics Pact and have consistently pioneered ideas and technologies designed to cut plastic waste. This summer, we'll be trialling our ‘future bottle’, made from 50% rPET and 50% plant material, with the objective that we’ll use it for all our packaging as soon as possible. "
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |
June 28, 2021
