Target: Trader Joe’s CEO Dan Bane
Goal: Urge popular grocery chain to ensure their suppliers safely dispose of deadly waste
Recently, a dead sperm whale washed up on the southern coast of Spain with 17 kg of plastic waste in its stomach. The waste was traced back to farmers tending greenhouses that supply produce to many of the United Kingdom’s supermarkets, including the popular grocery store chain Trader Joe’s parent company, Aldi. Researchers found large sheets of plastic used in the construction of greenhouses protruding through the whale’s stomach after it had swallowed 59 individual pieces. The whale was ten meters long and had swallowed such an enormous amount of plastic that researchers could barely believe their eyes. The whale’s stomach also contained nine meters of rope, two stretches of hosepipe, two flowerpots, and a plastic spray canister.
The greenhouse suppliers produce nearly 45,000 tons of plastic each year and they are entirely neglectful when it comes to proper disposal of this waste. Local environmentalists in Almeria, where the greenhouses are located, complain that riverbeds are flooded with plastic detritus and that much of it has been swept out to sea. Sperm whales feed in waters near where the greenhouses are located, and the population is threatened by this man-made danger.
These plastics are no longer recyclable and their permanent presence puts an incredible strain on the marine life that inhabits not only the area surrounding the greenhouses, but anywhere the current might sweep the deadly debris. The fact that these plastics are not being disposed of properly and are simply being dumped into a sensitive and delicate ecosystem is a complete outrage. These greenhouses supply major grocery chains with the money and influence to ensure proper disposal of waste. But because they have been too cheap and lazy to do so, a sperm whale, one of perhaps only one thousand that live in the Mediterranean, is dead, along with uncountable other marine animals and fish.
Sign this petition, and urge Trader Joe’s to ensure the proper disposal of waste by any company they work with.
Dear Dan Bane,
The greenhouse suppliers for your parent company, Aldi, have been dumping massive amounts of industrial waste into the delicate sea ecosystem surrounding Almeria. Recently, a sperm whale was discovered dead off the coast of Spain because of this outrageous lack of foresight, its stomach filled with the plastic from your suppliers.
Trader Joe’s has always been the image of an environmentally and sociologically progressive company, and so I urge you now to use your company’s influence to condemn this terrible pollution that has caused so much damage to the Mediterranean Sea and its delicate and beautiful creatures. Please end this careless and dangerous pollution.
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Julian Ilcheff Borissoff via Wikimedia Commons