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Yet Coca-Cola has no comprehensive recycling strategy that
includes quantitative goals for boosting the recycled content
in its U.S. beverage containers or for enhanced rates of beverage
container recovery in the U.S.
Nearly one-third of Coca-Cola’s bottled products are bottled
in plastic (polyethylene terephthalate or PET) beverage containers,
yet Coca-Cola’s plastic beverage containers in the U.S. contain
a mere 2.5% recycled content. This is not "an environmentally
sound and sustainable" path. At the same time Coca-Cola
bottles in Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland and Sweden
use at least 25 percent recycled-content plastic and the company
has the technological capability to produce a similar level
of recycled content in the U.S.
Several competitors, including Gatorade and Veryfine use
25% recycled content in their containers. Major consumer product
companies such as Unilever and Procter & Gamble containers
also use at least 25% recycled content.
WHEREAS: the majority of Coca-Cola’s beverage containers
in the U.S. are being needlessly thrown in landfills, incinerated
or littered and are therefore diverted from the national supply
of recycled plastic.
The U.S. recycling rate for plastic soft drink containers
declined from 50 percent in 1994 to 35 percent in 1999, and
Coca-Cola has actively lobbied against bottle container deposit
systems (i.e. bottle bill legislation) that are the only proven
method to increase recovery significantly, thereby increasing
the supply of recycled content for beverage containers.
Significant container recovery rates are possible, as evidenced
by the experience of U.S. states with bottle bills, and of
countries like Germany and Sweden, where beverage companies
have achieved beverage container recovery rates of more than
80 percent.
In the U.S., states with beverage container deposit systems
recover three times as many bottles as states without deposits.
Recycled PET content can be less costly than its virgin counterpart
if a greater supply of used containers is made available for
recycling. Yet our company is currently selling some of its
own collected PET containers that could provide the raw materials
to boost the recycled content level of Coke containers.
WHEREAS: setting quantitative goals for boosting the
recycled content in its beverage containers and for higher
rates of beverage container recovery will begin to fulfill
the company’s stated commitment to "focus on minimizing
our impact on the environment and strive for continuous improvement."
BE IT RESOLVED THAT: Shareowners of The Coca-Cola
Company request that the board of directors adopt a comprehensive
recycling strategy. The strategy should aim to achieve, by
January 1, 2005, a system-wide average of 25 percent recycled
content in all plastic beverage containers, and a recovery
rate of 80 percent for its beverage containers bottled in
the United States. The board shall prepare a report, by October
1, 2001, on the company’s efforts to achieve, and progress
in achieving, this strategy.
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