Readers in high places

"Burn 'em as fuel - group's plan for plastic bags" is the headline to today's story on plastic bags, firmly entrenched at the top of the front page. Following up on yesterday's article, we discover that the Packaging Council have declared that they want to burn plastic rather than have it end up on landfills. Maybe it's just me, but if someone asked me what the eco-friendly approach to dealing with plastic rubbish was, I wouldn't answer 'just burn it'. Of course, that is why we have experts. Quite who the Packaging Council have slept with to get all this media coverage I don't know, but what is particularly interesting to me, and therefore to you, are the differences between today's article and yesterday's, both by Eloise Gibson.

You may have read my post yesterday about the mysterious workings of the shadowy Packaging Council, and Eloise Gibson's failed attempt to let anyone know who or what they were. Here were some points that I made about the article:

• The Packaging Council were mentioned with no introduction.
• They were discussed in the context of deals with the Warehouse, Progressive Enterprises et al. without mentioning that they were made up of those very companies.
• The pronouncements were not cited as from a spokesperson, but rather from the Council itself.

In today's article, however:

• The PC are described, rather interestingly - and not to say rather euphemistically - in the first paragraph as a 'packaging body'. Eloise goes on to say:

  The Packaging Council, which describes itself as "the industry's voice on policies affecting packaging and packaging waste", wants to reduce the environmental effect of packaging by promoting alternatives.

  Maybe they do, maybe they don't. Maybe, like any good industry body or professional group, they just want to look like they're doing something proactive so as to avoid outside regulation but at least she has taken my lead and said something about who or what the PC are. What's more: funnily enough, the reporter chooses to cite the very same sentence that appeared on these hallowed (web)pages yesterday. Weird!
• We suddenly find out that the Warehouse, Foodstuffs and Progressive are all members of the PC, as discovered and then uncovered by the investigations of yours truly.
• We can now put a name to the bleak, corporate face: executive direct Paul Curtis. Now, that wasn't so hard, was it? If you're interested, I can also put a face and a shirt to the name:

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Although I suppose I would still prefer a job.