Every industry experiences the ebb and flow of change. To remain relevant, and legal for that matter, businesses have to keep a close eye in order to keep up.
Take the plastics recycling industry, for example. In recent years, it’s undergone a constant inundation of change in everything from policy and legislation, to public perception. The trends of these changes are significant not only for plastics lobbying groups but for any business utilizing plastic in their products.
The Plastics
Heavy hitters such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi have to negotiate the balance of using plastics, one of the most reasonable materials for their product, and the growing concern for the effect of plastic use on our environment by their customer base.
Coca-Cola announced a commitment to be collecting and recycling the plastic materials equivalent to every bottle they sell by 2030. This commitment requires Coca-Cola to take an active role in providing solutions for the infrastructure of the recycling industry. Additionally, it’s a commitment the company has to be careful not to contradict.
Since both Coca-Cola and Pepsi are two major sellers of plastic bottles, it’s not surprising they’d be a part of the Plastics Industry Association. This association is dedicated to lobbying for the use of plastics, improving materials, and working to improve upon recycling of plastics.
Such a mission would seem consistent with both Coca-Cola and Pepsi’s campaign for improving the environment.
Sifting Through the Landfill of Information
Herein lies the problem. In the digital age, everyone from a teen to a corporate CEO has instant access to a wealth of information. However, this also means the amount of content available at the fingertip is nearly infinite.
Combing through this information for what’s relevant to your industry and ensure accuracy can become an impossible task.
This is especially true if the information you need seems to be intentionally buried.
Finding the Buried Lead
For our plastic bottle businesses, that’s the exact situation they found themselves in.
The Plastics Industry Association has a buried tie to the American Progressive Bag Alliance (APBA). This group is dedicated to making plastic bag bans illegal. The connection can be found in a redirect from the Plastics Industry Association website to the APBA. Furthermore, both groups share the @plasticsindustry.org email suffix, marking them as part of the same organization.
Even if APBA’s assertion that plastic bags have insignificant effects on the environment is true, these bans are a public face of the efforts to protect the environment. And with the Plastics Industry Association’s connection with the APBA, the public image for companies like Coca-Cola and Pepsi are called into question as their missions and their relationships become contradictory.
Don’t Get Caught Working in Hindsight
As the game-changing connection came to light, Coca-Cola released a statement announcing their separation from the Plastics Industry Association. Pepsi, then, released their own explaining the reasoning behind remaining in the group.
This type of buried information, which may have seemed irrelevant, shifts the landscape for the plastics recycling industry. It’s also the exact type of connection AI software may have been able to find before problems were caused.
Contexture’s AI software is designed to monitor industry trend information for busy professionals who don’t have the time or resources to dedicate towards personally reviewing anything and everything that could possibly be relevant to your company.
You can’t know what information you don’t know.
An AI Solution for Everyone’s Problem
Contexture has two main products: Billwatch and Mediawatch. Together they provide a media and policy monitoring solution with the technology, content and the results that produce the market intelligence the executive team needs.
When your company utilizes Contexture, the platform continuously monitors and updates your team with the latest in policy, legislative and regulatory updates and changes. Plus, it complements this with environmental news, media and events so you can be totally up to date on what’s happening in the market.
Our world of available information is overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Start using Contexture and you’ll unearth everything you need to stay on top of your industry.
