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The majority of Coca-Cola's beverage containers in the U.S. continue
to be disposed in landfills, incinerated or littered and are therefore
diverted from the national supply of recycled plastic.
We commend the Coca Cola Company for making substantive progress in
the use of recycled content in 2001 by incorporating the equivalent
of 7.5% recycled content resin into its plastic beverage containers
in North America, and encourage further efforts toward 25% recycled
content.
We commend the company for engaging in a process known as the Multi-Stakeholder
Recovery Project with Businesses and Environmentalists Allied for Recycling
(BEAR). In this project, stakeholders throughout the beverage and recycling
value chain are working together on a Task Force to identify innovative
strategies to increase beverage container recycling rates from 40% to
80%. However, the task force's work has been completed and the company
remains without publicly stated, quantitative goals for enhanced rates
of beverage container recovery in the U.S.
The U.S. recycling rate for plastic soft drink containers declined
from 50% in 1994 to 35% in 2000, with rates of 72% and higher achieved
in 10 states with container deposit legislation (or bottle bills). Significant
container recovery rates are possible, as evidenced in these 10 states,
and in countries like Norway and Sweden where companies have achieved
beverage container recovery rates of more than 80%. In the U.S., states
with beverage container deposit systems recover three times as many
bottles as states without deposits. Nevertheless, Coca-Cola actively
opposes a bottle container deposit system, the only method proven to
increase recovery significantly.
WHEREAS setting quantitative goals for higher rates of beverage
container recovery will complement the Coca-Cola Company's quantitative
goals for higher rates of recycled content in beverage containers.
BE IT RESOLVED THAT Shareowners of The Coca-Cola Company request
that the board of directors report to shareholders by September 1, 2002,
on its efforts to adopt a comprehensive recycling strategy.
The report should detail the means and feasibility of achieving, by
January 1, 2005, a recovery rate of 80% for its beverage containers
bottled in North America as well as the company's plans to increase
recycled content in beverage containers. The report should: include
a cost-benefit analysis of the different options available, such as
curbside recycling, drop-off programs, container deposit systems, and
voluntary company and industry programs; explain the Coca-Cola Company's
position on container deposit systems.
SUPPORTING STATEMENT: The Coca-Cola Company has some programs
in place to improve beverage container recovery rates. However, Coca-Cola
does not have a quantitative goal or timeline to increase beverage container
recovery rates equivalent to its goals for the use of recycled content.
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