In the simplest of terms, a brand audit is a tool used to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a company or brand. However, in this case, a brand audit is used to assess which companies or brands produce the most plastic pollution. These audits can provide data to help guide legislation and prove that current initiatives by corporations to “fix” the plastic crisis have simply not been enough.

How have corporations tried to “fix” the plastic crisis?

With the millions of dollars that companies based in the United States alone have poured into “recycling initiatives” for the sake of securing their profit, these brands’ main concerns clearly lie within the market. In fact, across the 1980s and early 1990s, plastic companies themselves were the ones to push for the “chasing arrows” symbols on plastic packaging^[1] for the sake of bettering their appearance in the public eye. Though we have come to understand these symbols as suggesting that something is recyclable, this simply is not often the case. For more information on recycling, please visit our page here.

The chasing arrows symbol, often misunderstood to indicate that something is recyclable^[2].

Where can I learn more about brand audits?

One prominent example of brand audits comes from Break Free From Plastic^[3], who helped lead the very first audit in 2017 in the Philippines. As of 2018, their data incorporates global findings, giving a better understanding of the differences in plastic pollution across nations.

For more information on Break Free From Plastic’s brand audits, visit their site here^[4].

An image taken from one such brand audit, showing the plastic contents collected from along a beach.

Sources
1. Plastic Wars | FRONTLINE
2. What Do the Chasing Arrows Mean, Anyway?
3. Break Free From Plastic
4. BFFP: Brand Audit Turns 5! Download the Brand Audit Report 2022