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
telephone calls and e-mail from an 'action
alert' sent to 300,000 Working Assets
customers, calling upon 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 began receiving a 'CitizenAlert'
with their telephone bill on July 10 and the
national mailing is expected to be completed
by early August. CitizenAlerts typically
generate 30,000 to 40,000 phone calls.
"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.
"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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