[greenyes] Coke, Refillables and Recycling

["Peter Anderson" <anderson@no.address>]

With reference to the Greenpeace posting:
  GREENPEACE ACTIVISTS REPRESENTING CHARACTERS COMING BACK FROM THE FUTURE 
TO
  FIGHT WASTE.

  GREENPEACE RETURN PLASTIC BOTTLES TO COCA COLACONTAINING THOUSANDS OF 
MESSAGES FROM CONSUMERS

  IN AN APPEAL TO SCIENCE FICTION, A 16 PEOPLE GROUP CAME FROM THE FUTURE TO 
FIGHT THE GROWING PROBLEM OF WASTE.   THE FIRST TARGET OF THE GROUP WAS COCA 
COLA BECAUSE THEIR GROWING PRODUCTION OF DISPOSABLE
  BOTTLES.

Certainly, for those looking to build sustainable structures in the future, 
it is unfortunate that the day of refillable bottles has passed in so much 
of the world. Also, leadership is sorely needed on bottle bills in a time 
when single serve containers are eroding recovery rates, and certainly the 
market leader is always a perennial target.

On the other hand, as recyclers, we need to recognize Coke for the major 
initiative it took in 2000 to voluntarily commit to use 10% recycled content 
in its plastic bottles, which culminated in years of behind the scenes work 
to help commercialize recycled PET technologies.

For years PET recycling had been struggling financially in significant part 
because the cost premium for producing food grade bottle resin from recycled 
instead of virgin plastic made it impossible to gain a beach head in those 
higher paying bottle markets. Recyclers had been largely relegated to the 
committed, but low value, fiber markets, with their dependency on the 
gut-wrenching and extremely volatile markets in China.

The sheer volumes controlled by Coke was the catalyst that moved the 
equipment market to develop the technology to use curbside collected PET 
bottles to be recycled back into those high paying bottle markets, and also 
to eliminate the costly re-pelletization process (about 8-10 cents per 
pound).  Absent those changes that made recycled PET competitive in the 
bottle-to-bottle market, this major part of the reason for strengthening 
prices received by recyclers would not have happened, and it only did happen 
because of Coke's commitment here.

So, certainly there is a need to continue to push for more sustainable 
practices in other areas as well, but, at the same time, I feel that we will 
ill-serve our own interests if we fail to acknowledge the positive things 
that companies have done, especially when it is not just PR but major 
substantive progress.

I recognize that this may be controversial, and tie me down defending these 
views in the coming weeks, but I feel quite strongly that it needs to be 
said. Otherwise, if we fail to give credit where it is due, we will remove 
any incentive for other industries to cooperate with our policy nostrums.

                                                                             
    Peter
_________________________
Peter Anderson, President
RECYCLEWORLDS CONSULTING
4513 Vernon Blvd. Suite 15
Madison, WI 53705-4964
Ph: (608) 231-1100
Fax: (608) 233-0011
Cell: (608) 698-1314
eMail: anderson@no.address
web: www.recycleworlds.net

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