BOSTON, September 24, 2024 – A noteworthy 40% of General Mills shareholders voted Tuesday in favor of a Green Century proposal urging the food company to assess how it can increase the scale, pace and rigor of its sustainability efforts, including reducing plastic packaging. The proposal also urged General Mills to ensure its recycling labels don’t mislead consumers.
“Plastic pollution is harming our oceans, our wildlife, and our health,” said Leslie Samuelrich, president of Green Century. “General Mills’ investors have sent a strong message that the company cannot recycle its way out of the plastic pollution problem.”
The ocean ingests enough plastic every minute to fill a garbage truck, and global plastic consumption is on track to double by 2040. Though industry often elevates recycling as the solution to global plastic pollution, experts say reducing plastic use is key.
Green Century filed a similar proposal two years ago asking General Mills to assess how it could cut its plastic use. That resolution received 56% of shareholder votes cast – one of the few majority votes on environmental issues in the 2022-2023 U.S. proxy season. Although General Mills has since enhanced some plastics-related disclosures, it neither issued the requested report nor disclosed substantive approaches, targets or plans to reduce its plastic packaging. Instead, the company doubled down on its goal to design 100% of packaging to be recyclable or reusable by 2030 — even though most plastic is not feasibly recyclable.
Recycling labels for plastic have come under scrutiny in recent years. A September 2023 article by Bloomberg showed that General Mills’ Nature Valley Granola Bar wrappers are not being recycled through “store drop-off” but are instead being landfilled, incinerated or exported. An ABC investigation in May 2023 highlighted the failure of store drop-off systems to recycle plastic bags and films. Other large food companies such as Mondelez have recognized these risks and committed to reduce plastic packaging and remove “store drop-off” and “check locally” recycling logos by 2025.
“General Mills’ emphasis on plastic recyclability over plastic reduction is misleading and ineffective,” said Annie Sanders, Green Century’s director of shareholder advocacy. “At the end of the day, General Mills needs to do right by its shareholders and the world around them. And the message from shareholders is clear: It’s time to reduce plastic pollution.”
###