Teun van de Keuken is a Dutch producer of TV and radio programs who established a reputation investigating fair trade and production practices in the food industry; he also founded the chocolate company Tony’s Chocolonely.
Teun made a TV documentary that was very critical towards compostable plastics. The name of the documentary was “Is composteerbaar plastic de oplossing voor ons plastic probleem?” (Translation: Is Compostable Plastic The Solution for our Plastic Problem?).
The documentary was broadcasted on Dutch TV on February 10, 2020. It had the effect of a bomb. It was this documentary that made me have doubts about compostable plastics. The intervention of the European Bioplastics spokesperson was also terrible.
More on this documentary here:
Slave Trade
Teun van de Keuken owns a chocolate company / brand called : Tony’s Chocolonely
Tony’s Chocolonely’s made their reputation by being “slave free” and “fair trade”. You can find the list of slave free chocolate here: Ethical Chocolate Companies
Tony’s Chocolonely was recently removed from this “slave free” list.
The reason: Tony’s Chcolonely and Mr. Teun van de Keuken work with a company that relies on child labor.
What do you mean with Child labor? Children forced to work in inhumane conditions on cocoa plants.
How would Teun van de Keuken react if his own children were enslaved and forced to work on cocoa plants?
To some extend this is a big disappointment and hypocrisy from Mr. Teun van de Keuken.
The compostable plastics industry may not be perfect, but at least they don’t rely on child labour.
I will stop eating this chocolate … which were very good by the way!