The movement to make companies environmentally responsible continues.
Growing National Campaign Challenges Coca-Cola Chairman Ivesterto Cut Plastic Soda Bottle Waste
Coke - Take It Back!' Say 81 Groups -
Make New Bottles with Recycled Plastic
WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Coca-Cola's increasing use of plastic soda bottles made without using any recycled plastic wastes resources and pollutes the environment, say organizers of a growing national protest.
"Some things don't go better with Coke, things like plastics recycling," Lance King, campaign consultant to the GrassRoots Recycling Network, said today in a news conference at 11:00 AM outside the U.S. Post Office next to Washington's Union Station.
"We are here to send Coca-Cola Chairman Ivester a simple message -- take back your empty plastic soda bottles and use them to make new bottles. Coke uses recycled plastic in other countries, it's time to do it here," King said.
Consumers are sending Coke a message by mailing empty bottles back to Coca-Cola's Chairman and CEO M. Douglas Ivester at One Coca-Cola Plaza, Atlanta, GA 30313. Just put a mailing label on the bottle addressed to Ivester at One Coca-Cola Plaza in Atlanta, GA 30313 and add a 55 cent stamp on a 20 ounce or 2 liter bottle. Rinse out the bottle and put the cap back on before mailing.
The Coke -- Take It Back! campaign is growing rapidly, with support from 81 organizations and leaders in 26 states as of November 9. Environmental, consumer, recycling and student groups launched the campaign in mid-September and have experienced a 4 fold increase in endorsements since then.
"Our campaign is about manufacturer responsibility. Recycling works only if manufacturers like Coke use the materials consumers recycle," Larry Bohlen, director of health and environment for Friends of the Earth in Washington, DC, said today.
Sunday, November 15, is the 2nd national America Recycles Day. Consumers are being asked to pledge to "buy recycled." The theme for the day is "If you're not buying recycled, you're not really recycling."
"We are calling on Coke to take responsibility for its wasteful plastic packaging by making new bottles with recycled material. The company chairman was issued a challenge on Tuesday, November 10, in Atlanta to take the buy recycled pledge," Bob Woodall of the Georgia Sierra Club said. Woodall delivered a giant 4 foot by 7 foot pledge form to the company headquarters along with representatives of nearly a dozen Georgia-based organizations.
Protests are being conducted in more than a dozen communities around the nation from November 10 to November 15, including:
November 10 in Atlanta and Athens, Georgia
November 12-13 in New Orleans
November 12 in Washington, DC and Sacramento, CA
November 11-13 in Eugene, Oregon
November 13 in San Francisco and Oakland, California, and in Bloomington,
Ill.
November 14 in Andover, Massachusetts, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
November 15 in San Luis Obispo, California
"This is a decentralized, grassroots campaign" King said. "We can't keep up with all the activity. Boulder, Colorado, for instance is holding a rally with Coke campaign songs and a march to the post office but postponed due to snow and 40 mile an hour winds on Tuesday."
"One local government sparked interest in the mail back campaign. In San Luis Obispo County, California, elected officials on the solid waste authority launched a radio and newspaper ad campaign almost a year ago calling on consumers to send back their empty plastic Coke bottles," Rick Best, policy director for Californians Against Waste and chair of the GRRN Steering Committee said today in Sacramento, California.
Coca-Cola sells an estimated 20 million sodas every day in the United States in plastic bottles. In a year's time more than 8 billion plastic Coke bottles made from more than 600 million pounds of virgin plastic are discarded.
"As quickly as those bottles are tossed away, the plastics industry extracts more non-renewable resources and spews more hazardous emissions to churn out millions of new bottles," Dr. Bill Sheehan, GRRN Network Coordinator said from the organization's national headquarters in Athens, Georgia.
"While certain industries incorporate used plastic soda bottles into a host of products, 64 percent of all used soda bottles became waste or litter in 1997 -- largely because Coke refuses to 'close the loop' by taking them back and using them again," GRRN's chair Rick Best said.
In Washington, King mailed petitions with thousands of signatures gathered by volunteers in nearly 2 dozen communities to Coke's headquarters.
"Soft drinks packaged in plastic, particularly in the recently introduced 20 ounce bottles, are adding to the waste stream 10 times faster than the growth in recycling of soda bottles. We're targeting Coke as the industry leader with 44 percent of the market," King said.
"Cost-effective technologies approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are available to Coke. It would cost about one tenth of one penny to use 25 percent recycled plastic in a 20 ounce bottle, according to one industry source," King said.
Coca-Cola uses recycled plastic in Coke bottles sold in a number of other countries, where government mandates require it. If Coke refuses to take the "buy recycled" pledged voluntarily, then calls for government to adopt legislation may grow according to GRRN.
SOURCE GrassRoots Recycling Network
CO: Coca-Cola; GrassRoots Recycling Network
ST: District of Columbia
IN: ENV FOD
SU:
|
