NEWS RELEASE
July 28, 1999 Contact: Lance King (703) 582-7932
Working Assets Joins Campaign Targeting
Coca-Cola's Plastic Bottle Waste
"Action alert" sent to 300,000 long distance customers with message to call
Ivester, pressing Coke to make soda bottles from recycled plastic
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO M. Douglas Ivester is
getting thousands of telephone calls, letters and e-mail messages from an
action alert sent to over 300,000 Working Assets customers. The focus is
asking Coke to use recycled plastic to make new soda bottles, the GrassRoots
Recycling Network announced today.
"Working Assets is making a major contribution to the grassroots campaign
calling upon Coca-Cola to take responsibility for its plastic bottle waste.
Mr. Ivester announced in 1990 that his company would start making recycled
plastic soda bottles, but Coke abandoned the process 4 years ago. As a
result, billions of plastic bottles which could be used to make new bottles
go to landfills or incinerators every year," Dr. Bill Sheehan, network
coordinator for the GrassRoots Recycling Network, said today.
Working Assets long distance telephone customers will receive the
'Coca-Cola Citizen Action' message with their July telephone bill. Citizen
Action alerts typically generate 30,000 to 40,000 telephone calls and letters
to decision-makers named in the phone bill.
"Coca-Cola sells more than 25 million sodas everyday in plastic bottles
in the United States. Almost two-thirds of those bottles end up littered or
sent to landfills and incinerators. As fast as those bottles are thrown
away, the plastics industry churns out new bottles and spews out toxic
chemicals in making new plastics from raw materials," said GRRN Campaign
Organizer Lance King.
The GrassRoots Recycling Network (GRRN) is leading a campaign calling
upon Coca-Cola to take responsibility for its wasteful plastic soda bottles.
A national nonprofit organization headquartered in Athens, Georgia, GRRN is
mobilizing recycling leaders, businesses and environmentalists in an effort
to eliminate waste and create a sustainable economy.
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GrassRoots Recycling Network: News Release Page 2 of 2
July 28, 1999
"The Working Assets mailing is part of the 'Coke - Take It Back!'
campaign launched by the GrassRoots Recycling Network in September 1998. To
date, 88 organizations, recycling leaders and businesses in 26 states have
endorsed the campaign," Sheehan said.
City councils and government agencies in 6 communities in 4 states have
also passed resolutions calling upon Coke to begin making plastic soda
bottles with recycled material.
"Coke says it abandoned recycled plastic bottles because costs were too
high. But more cost-effective technologies have been developing,
technologies passing U.S. Food and Drug Administration review. Coca-Cola
uses recycled plastic - and even refillable plastic bottles -- in some
countries," King said.
Working Assets is a long distance, credit card and Internet services
company that donates a portion of its revenues to nonprofit groups working
for peace, human rights, equality, education and the environment.
More information on the GrassRoots Recycling Network and the Coke
campaign is available on the Internet at: http://www.grrn.org. The Working
Assets alerts can be viewed at http://www.workingassets.com.
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