----- Original Message -----
From: Derek Rasmussen <derekr@nunanet.com>
To: <zerowaste@grrn.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 24, 2000 8:09 AM
Subject: TO GRRN: plastic coke bottles clog up the arctic
Greetings from Iqaluit, capital of the new (1999) majority
Inuit territory of Nunavut (28,000res.) in Canada, and
everyday home to another 4000 plastic coke bottles. I've
lived here since 1991; I can recall back in 1995 or 96 when
the Coke franchise here floated their bottling machine up;
ever since then we've had an enormous problem with the
plastic bottles--and unlike you guys in the south--we have
NO roads to get rid of them. Everything here has to come
and go either by plane or boat--very expensive. And we
dont see Coke making any sounds about full cost
accounting for the removal of their plastic--so the public
purse subsidizes the private megacorporation, town garbage
department gathers and burns the bottles in a shallow pit
with the fumes blowing over our 5000 residents. The
pristine Arctic. Hmmmm. Good luck with your campaign.
I'm attaching a transcript of Monday's CBC report on
pissed off townspeople (one of them is Rhanva Simonson ;
867-979-3183) (Earle Baddaloo's number 867-975-5910)
(Roger Walker, Coke, 979-2941).
Cheers, Derek Rasmussen Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada (867)
979-6549 (H) (867) 975-4911 (W)
August 21, 2000 - Monday - Evening
CBC Radio News 17:30 Shotlist
Lead: Iqaluit Environmental Group Wants Plastic Coke
Bottle Mess Dealt With;
A local environmental group is speaking out about the
pollution caused by an excessive amount of plastic coke
bottles in Nunavut's capital. The Iqaluit Environmental and
Beautification Society is not satisfied with the effort being
made to deal with the waste. The CBC's Leah Shaw has
more:
(Shaw) Coca Cola sells more than four-thousand plastic
bottles of pop every day in Iqaluit. The plastic is 100%
recyclable, but no one is recycling them in Nunavut.
Rhanva Simonson is concerned. She is with the local
Environmental Group.
(Simonson) Everyone is too busy to care, and it just gets,
ends up, as trash on the dump if we're lucky into toxic
fumes. Or all over the place. On the beaches and on the
tundra, on the land, in the town.
Earle Baddaloo says he does care. Battaloo is manager of
environmental protection with the Department of
Sustainable Development . He's trying to find ways to deal
with Nunavut's plastic. But he says there are details to be
worked out:
(Baddaloo) You don't have trucks that can cross the Baffin
Strait, to come across here, to take stuff down across to the
mainland to recycling depots. (unintelligible) but from the
Department's point of view, we are looking at addressing
the situation.
Coca Cola continues to feed the supply of plastic bottles.
The general manager for the Coca Cola bottling depot says
he's willing to go along with whatever the government
suggests, as long as it's fair. Roger Walker.
(Walker) Otherwise, us being the Coca Cola bottler , and
one of the only manufacturing facilities up there, if a
deposit is put only on our product, then it makes us
uncompetitive.
In the meantime, the bottles continue to float in the bay and
litter the park. Some individuaeninave taken it upon
themselves to carry a bag to pick up garbage wherever they
go. Leah Shaw, CBC News, Iqaluit. ###
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