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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.
Contact: Bill Sheen, Grassroots Recycling Network,
706-613-7121 www.grrn.org www.proxyinformation.com
(for information on Shareholder votes)
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