Why I work here

So here I am in Los Angeles, California. I live for free in a sweet apartment that's furnished with everything I need, and I drive a rental car and don't even have to pay for gas. I get $75 every week for food, and I don't even have to pay for parking. Plus, I get a paycheck. Honestly, I'm living in the lap of luxury.. it's seems almost ridiculous to me, but I am so grateful for it, because it means that I can pay for my last year of school and everything else! Most PR internships aren't paid, so this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Plus, it's giving me such a great opportunity to network and hopefully will help me in 6 months or so when I'm looking for a real adult job. That's weird to think about.

Anyway, I have been here for a month now! There are four of us (Me, David Lake, Lindsay Bragg and Ryan Gray) working on this internship. And it has been crazy- but in a good way. We spent our first week or so learning everything we could possibly want to know about recycling, grassroots campaigning, and our client.

Basically, we work directly for Edelman Public Relations. Our client account is Kindel Gagan, a grassroots lobbying firm employed by the American Chemistry Council. The ACC has several members, including DART and the Plastics Foodservice Packaging Group (the people who make takeout containers and foodservice materials). It's pretty confusing, but I'll explain.

For the past eight years or so, there have been proposed bans on different types of plastics. The one that is the most common, is a ban on Polystyrene foam (#6 plastic). Although there are many types of plastic found in the rivers and ocean, Polystyrene has become the scapegoat- a symbol of modern consumerism and a target for environmentalists. These bans look positive, because their goal is to eliminate marine debris in the ocean. However, it's more like putting a band-aid on a broken leg than anything. The only thing these bans really do, is cause more expensive garbage to end up in the river. There aren't any materials that we know of, that will decompose in salt water, so there's really no best option for takeout containers. Many restaurants use foam because it is cheap, and simply put, it is the best material for the job. Foam is the only product that keeps cold food cold, and hot food hot for more than 5 minutes.

Cue the interns. We were hired to raise the voices of restaurant owners by helping them write letters to their senators asking them not to support the bans on plastics. Our main goal, is to discredit bans as a policy tool and show that they really don't provide a solution. Often, politicians sponsor these types of bans, because their constituency wants them to show that they are pro-environmental, and proposing a ban looks great on paper. In reality, bans don't actually work so our mission is to prove that to the governing body.