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[GreenYes] RELEASE: Coca-Cola Shareholder Vote on Recycling - 'Better Than Expected'
NEWS RELEASE
April 18, 2001 Contact:
Lance King  (703) 536-7282 or (706) 613-7121

Coca-Cola Shareholder Vote on Recycling -
'Better Than Expected'

88.9 Million Shares Voted 'Yes' on Recycling Means
Supporters
Can Bring Measure Back Again, According to Rules
Set by U.S. SEC

ATLANTA, GA (April 18, 2001)  - Investors with 88.9
million shares of Coca-Cola stock, worth more than 4
billion dollars, voted to support a shareholder resolution
on recycling at the company's annual meeting today.

Supporters of the recycling resolution secured enough
support to bring the proposal back again next year,
according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
rules governing shareholder proposals.

"We did better than expected.  When you combine the
yes votes and those who abstained, roughly 10 percent
of the votes went against the Coca-Cola management's
recommendation opposing the recycling resolution.
That's an excellent result for a first vote on any
shareholder resolution," said Lance King, speaking on
behalf of environmental groups and individual investors
supporting the recycling proposal (Item 5) on Coke's
agenda.

Conrad MacKerron, representing the Education
Foundation of America and Walden Asset
Management, co-sponsors of the shareholder resolution,
made the presentation in support of the shareholder
proposal.  The non-binding proposal calls for Coca-
Cola to achieve two specific recycling goals by January
1, 2005:

·   Make plastic bottles with 25 percent recycled
    plastic; and
·   Take steps to achieve an 80 percent recycling
    rate for Coke bottles and cans.

"Recycling rates for beverages sold by Coca-Cola and
its competitors dropped
dramatically in recent years, as plastic bottles and other
throwaway beverage containers proliferate," said Pat
Franklin, a Coke shareholder and executive director of
the nonprofit Container Recycling Institute, based in
Arlington, Virginia.

 Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO Douglas Daft
made two significant announcements in response to the
shareholder proposal on recycling.  First, Daft said that
Coca-Cola plans to use 10 percent recycled plastic in its
bottles by 2005.  Second, Daft said Coke is working
with a newly formed alliance called BEAR -
Businesses and Environmentalists Allied for Recycling.

 In a question and answer session, Bill Sheehan
of the GrassRoots Recycling Network noted that Coke
uses 25 percent recycled plastic in other countries, such
as Daft's native Australia, and Sheehan asked "why not
in the United States?"

Sheehan also presented a letter in support of the
shareholder resolution on recycling, addressed to the
Coca-Cola Board of Directors, and signed by 76
investors, public officials, businesses, environmental
and community leaders.

Bob Woodall, an Atlanta-shareholder and executive
director of Waste Not Georgia, said after the vote:
"Unless a financial incentive is established, like the
refundable deposits in 10 states with bottle bill laws,
Coke will find it difficult or impossible to meet the goal
of making plastic bottles with 10 percent recycled
plastic."

Institutional investors co-sponsoring the shareholder
recycling resolution called on Coca-Cola to stop
opposing bottle bills or come up with another method to
achieve the 80 percent recycling rate, which is the
current average in states with refundable deposits.

"The vote today assures shareholders that recycling will
stay on the agenda in discussion with top management
at Coca-Cola and can be brought back again next year,
if necessary.  Coca-Cola is beginning to address the
problem," King said.

Pepsi, by contrast, is doing nothing to address these
problems and fought unsuccessfully before the SEC to
block a similar shareholder recycling proposal,
according to the environmental groups.  The Pepsi
shareholder vote is scheduled May 2 in Dallas, Texas.

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