Coke Urged to Recycle Plastic

Ecology Center 11apr01

Recyclers, Environmentalists Say Company is misleading the public by not recycling it's waste.

Bet you don't know that even though every Coke bottle produced in the United States boasts a "chasing arrows" recycling symbol, only 2.5 percent of them are produced using any recycled materials. April 18 marks the annual Shareholder's meeting of the Coca-Cola Company in Bloomington, Indiana. Environmentalists and recyclers are urging shareholders to vote "yes" on a resolution that would require the Company to institute an 80% recycling rate for their bottles while using 25% recycled content in their bottle production.

For years the company has played lip service to concerned citizens, claiming that Coke would begin to use recycled materials, preventing further petroleum extraction and pollution. Although Coke has experimented with using recycled content materials in the bottle production process, they have yet to do so on a market- wide scale. "It's a fallout of the recycling system when manufacturers don't take responsibility for the products they produce," explained Tim Krupnik, Plastics Education Coordinator for the Berkeley Ecology Center. "Until they start incorporating recycled content materials, they'll keep on exploiting natural resources unnecessarily. Its high time they take action to correct this wrong." Significantly, Coke has been using such materials in bottle production in Europe for years.

Coca-Cola is the soft drink industry leader in the United States (44.6 percent market share in 1998) and worldwide (50 percent market share). With such leadership, explain recyclers, comes responsibility. Unfortunately, Coke has refused to take the appropriate lead: For nearly 30 years, Coke has spent tens of millions of dollars to defeat or repeal the most effective container recycling programs ( financial incentives in the form of deposits on beverage containers). Recyclers claim that the company has been more concerned with profit than protection of the environment.

Now, say environmentalists, is the time for the Coca-Cola Company to stop the waste, and the first step in doing so comes with the vote on April 18.

Tim Krupnik and Dave Williamson have already received numerous requests for information and interviews regarding the Coke: Take It Back Campaign. Contact them ASAP!

Contact names and numbers Tim Krupnik, Plastics Education Coordinator, 510-597-1784 tim@ecologycenter.org  Dave Williamson, Ecology Center Recycling Operations Manager, 510-527-1585 Bill Sheen, Grassroots Recycling Network, 706-613-7121 www.grrn.org  www.proxyinformation.com  (for information on Shareholder votes)