Right now I am sitting at my desk, listening to my I-pod. Well no, not really. I am not listening to my I-pod, but rather, to music on my I-pod—but this is small change, not really taking away from the main point I was trying to make about 2 sentences ago. Main point: I am physically attached to a piece of Apple equipment and I am thinking about it.

Physically and emotionally attached to a piece of Apple equipment. It’s ridiculous how I feel about my I-pod. The year after I graduated from college, my I-pod died (stupid mistake—I thought it would be ok to take it jogging with me in a downpour) and I still mourn its passing, like it was a favorite pet. Oh, my first I-pod with all of the music from my college’s radio station on you; I will never have an I-pod as good as you! The value of my second I-pod is not so much the music that’s on it but the beauty inherent to all I-pods—it just travels so well with me. How wonderful it is to throw this little contraption into my bag and not have to worry: I want to listen to this CD now, did I bring it? But despite how connected I am to my past and present I-pods, I will never, ever, come close to feeling how those people at San Francisco’s Mac World feel towards everything Apple.

Enter Greenpeace at Mac World in San Francisco, CA.

By now you know about Greenpeace’s Green My Apple campaign (if not, read it here: www.greenmyapple.com), so it’ll come as no surprise to you that we were at this Mac World convention, the largest gathering of Mac lovers.  Steve Jobs was speaking on the Tuesday morning of the convention and oh man, people were lined up in front of the convention center when we got there at 7 AM. (And it looked liked some had camped out overnight. No joking—there were camping chairs, blankets and Krispy Kreme donut boxes set up through out the line.)

We got to work. A group of us handed out fliers on Greenpeace’s campaign. We’re asking Apple, an innovator in technology, to be an innovator in green technology. We want Apple to stop using toxic chemicals in all of its products and to provide a free take-back program to reuse and recycle its products wherever they are sold. Most people at Mac World were very receptive to these ideas. They took the fliers we handed out, stopped to ask for more information, even posed for pictures with our version of “the Mac guy”—a cardboard cutout of the actor who plays “a Mac” on the commercials (in our version, he wears one of our campaign t-shirts). But the weird thing was, some people wanted to argue with us. That’s not weird in itself—I mean, we’re Greenpeace, so it would be bizarre if some people didn’t want to argue with us—but these arguers wanted to argue that we were personally insulting Steve Jobs. What the what? A company’s products are hurting people all across the world and we should consider the feelings of this company’s CEO?

So here's my point: If you can’t politely ask a company to change its ways— that is, point out what they’re doing badly and how they, as leaders in their field, can be better— what can you do? Just sit back and wait for companies to self-correct? Maybe that would work for Apple (after all, as we were told that day, Steve’s Vegan), but what about the other not so innovative companies? Isn’t one of our responsibilities as consumers to be responsible consumers?

The not-so-fun facts about Kleenex you all know: Kleenex, one of the most popular brands of tissue products in the world, contributes to the destruction of ancient forests. Its manufacturer, Kimberly-Clark, has been unwilling to improve its practices, continuing to rely on paper and pulp made from clearcut ancient forest. Kimberly-Clark clears these ancient forests, essential in fighting climate change and providing home to wildlife like caribou, wolves, eagles and bears, into products that are flushed down the toilet or thrown away. However, here are some juicy tidbits about our least favorite product. Straight from the internet . . .


The material from which Kleenex is made was originally called "Cellucotton," and was designed by Kimberly-Clark during World War I. It came to be used in gas mask filters during the war, as a replacement for cotton, which was in high demand for use as a surgical dressing. (Wikipedia)

The group Liliput formed in 1978 under the name Kleenex, and soon made a name for themselves, until the threat of legal action by Kimberly-Clark in 1979 prompted a change of name to LiLiPUT (Kleenex being a propietry brand of tampon in Switzerland). (Wikipedia)

Weird image: http://www.ironicsans.com/2006/06/georgia_okleenex.html

The KLEENEX¨ brand first advertised its function as a ‘marvelous new way to remove cold cream.’ Many famous actresses proclaim KLEENEX¨ Tissues contributed to their clear complexions. (http://feeds.feedburner.com/thedesignencyclopedia)

The term in France, “a Kleenex generation,” refers to workplace instability. A “Kleenex generation” means that an employee is “used and tossed away when the employer decides he needs a fresh one.” (from Barbara Ehrenreich, “Kleenex Workers” )

The term “snot party” (come on, you heard of it, right?!?) essentially translates into: the act of several people sneezing and blowing their noses really hard into kleenexes (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=snot+party)

Happy New Year! Taking a short walk down memory lane to look at what the K-C campaign’s been up to this past year, I’m going to list here (in no particular order) some of 2006’s most awesome achievements.  

* a letter of concern to K-C from American University that highlights the university’s decision to avoid using K-C paper products
* the removal of K-C products from Rice University’s Housing and Dining
* a letter of concern from Skidmore College to K-C
*  the launch of a campaign by Guilford College students to eliminate K-C products as part of an ethical purchasing policy
* a presentation of The Lorax by University of Chicago students outside of the office of K-C Board Member Linda Johnson Rice in downtown Chicago
* a letter from the Green Restaurant Association to K-C stating that they will not endorse K-C products
* a terrific student summer training program for 125 students—Change It!—that has inspired many students to become involved with the K-C campaign on their own campuses
* a successful US blockade of a K-C factory
* a successful Canadian blockade of a K-C factory
* a successful Italian blockade of K-C’s Italian administrative offices
* pledges from 700-plus Forest Friendly businesses not to use K-C products
* almost 150 Kleercuts Stink Day of Action at campuses across the US and Canada, including a Flush Falk dunk tank at University of Georgia- Athens
* two Greenpeace Organizing Term (GOT) summer trips to Neenah, WI (where K-C has paper mills) and Madison, WI that helped to spread word of the K-C campaign to people in Neenah and Madison (and let K-C know that we’re serious about the campaign). While in Wisconsin, private detectives followed around the GOT students

One word for ya: WOW!