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Home
Depot did it. DuPont did it.
Now
it's time for Coca-Cola to step up to an environmental challenge posed
by some of its stockholders. A proxy proposal presented for a shareholder
vote at Coca-Cola's annual meeting Wednesday called for the company
to adopt a comprehensive recycling strategy.
The
proposal called for using 25 percent recycled plastic in Coke bottles
and recycling 80 percent of cans and bottles by 2005. It was opposed
by the company management, which said it wants to increase use of recycled
materials but that specific goals would have to be based on local market
conditions and emerging technologies. (Coke has also opposed making
consumers pay deposits on bottles.)
The
shareholders' recycling proposal was overwhelmingly defeated --- to
no one's surprise. Seldom do shareholder resolutions receive much support.
But that wasn't the point. The purpose was to raise the consciousness
of corporate management and investors.
In
fact, similar failed proxy proposals relating to environmental concerns
have recently generated sufficient stirs to cause major corporations
to change the way they do business.
Two
years ago, Home Depot was faced with a proposal that it halt lumber
purchases from old-growth forests. Though the proposal received only
a small percentage of the shares voted, the company subsequently enacted
a policy prohibiting the purchase of lumber from the Great Bear Rainforest
in British Columbia and other ancient forests. And, DuPont, the international
plastics and paint giant, announced this month that it has nixed for
good its plans to mine for titanium near the Okefenokee Swamp. The company
began to reconsider the controversial mining following a shareholder
proposal opposing it.
The
recycling proposal on the Coke ballot this week was submitted by shareholders
representing $50 million in company stock and included well-known socially
responsible investment funds like Trillium Asset Management and Domini
Social Investments. Atlanta shareholder Lewis Regenstein, a supporter
of the resolution, expressed faith that Coca-Cola would become a soft
drink recycling leader, noting Coke Chairman Doug Daft's leadership
on environmental concerns.
Other
supporters pointed out that in Daft's native Australia, the company
already uses 25 percent recycled plastic in its bottles.
The
Georgia-based Grassroots Recycling Network says Coca-Cola creates 2
million wasted bottles and cans every hour and that beverage container
waste increased 50 percent in the United States between 1992 and 1999.
"Life tastes good" is Coke's new slogan. No reason
it won't taste just as good in a can or bottle made from recycled materials.
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