Husky invests in pro-plastics messages at UN treaty talks

Orlando, Fla. — Machinery maker Husky Technologies paid for pro-plastics advertisements displayed at the plastics treaty talks in Canada in April, a top company executive said May 6 at NPE2024 in Orlando.

The disclosure at the NPE2024 show is the first acknowledgment from executives at the Bolton, Ontario-based Husky (W2801) that they financed the ads, which were displayed around the city of Ottawa, Ontario, without identifying who was funding them.

"In the treaty, why we were showing [those ads], is we just want to remind people and all the delegations of the essential needs of plastic," said Henry Zhang, director of global marketing and ESG at Husky. "It's not a plastic problem. It's a pollution problem."

Besides Husky's pro-plastics ads, other business and environmental groups also put their own advertisements around Ottawa, but the other ad campaigns all identified who was sponsoring them, leading to speculation during the negotiations in Ottawa as to who was behind what was the most visible of the pro-plastics messaging.

Zhang, who attended the Ottawa talks, declined at an interview in Ottawa during those negotiations to confirm speculation that Husky paid for them. But in an interview after a May 6 news conference at Husky's booth at NPE, in Orlando, Fla., he acknowledged that the large Canadian machinery maker paid for them.

Husky's booth at NPE included the same images as the company put around Ottawa, on trucks circling the negotiating venue in downtown Ottawa, as well as on posters at hotels hosting side events and on billboards at the airport.

Those included pictures of people with plastic medical masks captioned "Plastic Enables Health" and a person drinking from a PET bottle, captioned "These Plastics Deliver Water."

"We all believe there is a plastic pollution problem, and we all believe that the circular economy is the solution for that," Zhang said. "People start to forget the nature of the plastic, that it protects and preserves."

The campaign also includes a website, theseplastics.com, that included several policy solutions, including minimum recycled content requirements, extended producer responsibility and more environmentally friendly product design.

Zhang declined to say how much Husky spent on the advertisements.

Besides Husky's campaign, other groups ran ads around the city.

The Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty said it was backing global rules in a treaty, the Minderoo Foundation pointed to health concerns around microplastics, and a plastics industry group, Plasticscircularity.org, outlined its goals for a treaty.

They used a variety of media such as truck billboards, signs in hotels and digital screens at the city's airport.

As well, environmental groups held a march, maintained a protest vigil across the street from the negotiating hall with a sculpture of plastic waste, and projected messages on buildings.

There was another business-related campaign in addition, a fourth, smaller effort from a Canadian business group with some ties to Husky took a stronger tone than the others, sending a truck around Ottawa sharply questioning the United Nations.

A vehicle from the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Businesses of Canada (CCMBC) traveling Ottawa's streets said that "I did not vote for the U.N. to dictate if I can use plastic" and "I say no to the U.N.," as well as messages promoting vinyl and plastics in healthcare.

Husky has some links to CCMBC. The company's logo appears prominently on videos of CCMBC's gala dinner in 2023 on its website.

As well, Husky CEO John Galt wrote an article in an April CCMBC online magazine where much of the content questioned the treaty, although Galt's article questioned Canadian government actions.

Galt has also been interviewed on CCMBC's YouTube channel discussing the Canadian government plastics bans.

In the interview at NPE, Zhang said Husky works with the CCMBC at times but he said the plastics company wanted to run its own advertising campaign for the negotiations.

"Their ads have nothing to do with us," Zhang said. "For us it's more important to bring those positive messages and let people be educated."

"They have their message," he said. "Husky's message is not the same."

At NPE, Zhang pointed to the four policy solutions that Husky is advocating within the treaty: recycled content requirements, EPR, product design and life cycle analysis.

Husky's Galt spoke at a treaty side event April 22 organized by the National Association for PET Container Resources, where he said Husky supports a treaty.