Keeping an eye on giant corporations and their propaganda is critical in our age, (see: Fox News). You are most specific about Waste Management, Inc.’s projects and back it up with facts. I am delighted that you back-up your comments with specific statistics as with your comments on their recycling data.

Missing from your June 30 comments, however, is the June 4 announcement of the Ethisphere Institute’s inclusion of Waste Management, Inc. on their list of the “World’s Most Ethical Companies”–a strong vote of confidence, indeed. Also, WM was named a “Climate Action Leader” by the California Climate Action Registry for voluntary data collection on greenhouse gas emissions–Californians have long been leaders in environmental awareness. Further, Waste Management is supposed to be taking a lead from the Germans by building a Land-Natural-Gas-to-Energy plant in California in conjunction with an actual German company , something they claim will produce fuel from LNG to power some 300 trucks. Finally, another WM waste-to-energy plant in South Carolina (?) is supplying a BMW manufacturing plant some percentage of its energy. A lot of information is available on WM’s website–a site seemingly dedicated to green awareness–Lucy Smith would agree that that alone would create some heightened awareness, at least in the minds of consumers.

Yes, we must remain vigilant in this age of emergence: let’s avoid being surprised some day by finding out that all of the early-21st Century’s “green rhetoric” was merely rhetoric and that we have all, in fact, been poisoned into extinction. Let’s keep an eye out to verify each claim to green–(how much carbon does Ed Begley, Jr. produce by his silly little TV program ‘Living With Ed’? Is he even breaking even?)

The real problem with Waste Management is not their environmental policy, but rather their labor relations. We cannot live green legitimately until we live with equality and human dignity. Unfortunately or not, in this late-capitalist condition we are all in together, we may have to rely on gigantic, yet wealthy, corporations to fund some the new technologies that will enable a beautiful and clean future for North America. Let them take the lead before they take my money, and we might yet better live in harmony with corporations as well as within our wonderful planet.

Just like Dove did with their real beauty campaign, Waste Management is reaching out to its audience and providing people with an outlet to express themselves on the topic. Facebook and Myspace applications don’t raise awareness; they are just something to put on your page to use as a procrastination device. Getting people to interact with one another and conduct civil discourse on the topic is the way to make a difference. It is not done by letting someone send someone a ‘flower’ to decorate their ‘green patch’ that is on their wall.

Waste Management is giving people the tools to talk about this extremely important discussion, what are you doing?