Bill,
Thanks for your input on this. They were very helpful! For
the record, I only was circulating what was published elsewhere.
I also understand that Coca-Cola did NOT adopt a Zero Waste goal.
Instead, they adopted
a goal to recycle or reuse 100 percent of its plastic bottles in the
U.S. The way Marc Gunther reported that was his view that this was
a major step forward towards Zero Waste. But he was NOT suggesting
that Coca-Cola is a Zero Waste company, nor have they adopted that
goal.
This is NOT diluting the brand of Zero Waste, just some positive actions
and commitments by a major player in the field. We also clearly
need to address the refillables issues with them to ensure that these
positive actions do not undercut the higher priority of reuse.
Gary
At 07:03 AM 9/18/2007, Bill Sheehan wrote:
A couple of clarifications on Marc Gunther's
article circulated by Gary Liss that suggest prudence on hawking the Zero
Waste brand too cheaply. Coke is to be congratulated on committing
to invest in recycling more of its plastic, but calling that Zero Waste
may be premature.
Gunther: "Zero waste ... won a powerful new
supporter yesterday in the Coca-Cola Co., which set a long-term goal of
having every bottle it sells in the U.S. recycled or reused."
An article in Plastics News (August
31, by Mike Verespej) had a more sober article with some interesting
specifics.
Plastics News:
"In 2006 ... [Coca-Cola] introduced in the Netherlands
a light-weight, recyclable bottle containing 25 percent recycled material
that will replace the refillable plastic bottles it previously
sold in that market."
Is this Zero Waste?
Gunther: "Coke's plastic bottles currently
contain about 10% recycled PET."
Plastics News:
"Coca-Cola Enterprises, which bottles 19 percent of
Coca-Cola nonalcoholic beverages worldwide and is its largest bottler,
used recycled PET for 3.8 percent of its needs last year."
Gunther: "The plant will open
next year; it will produce about 100 million pounds of food-grade
recycled PET for reuse each year.
Plastics News:
"In 2006 ... almost 4 billion pounds of PET
bottles were not recycled." [U.S., industry wide]
A long ways to go to Zero!
And most importantly:
Plastics News: "Coca-Cola also has invested $2
million" in voluntary recycling programs, which it plans to
promote nationally. "Despite the need for more recycled materials,
Coca-Cola and PepsiCo Inc. have opposed bottle deposits."
Deposits have proven to be
effective. Is it o.k. to declare a Zero Waste goal and then promote
a marginal, self-serving strategy?
/Bill Sheehan
Product Policy Institute
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