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Recycling, plastic bottles

The New Coke: Green

By Joshua S. Hill

Thursday, September 13, 2007

They've had Classic Coke, New Coke, Vanilla Coke and the dreaded Diet Coke, but now Coke are going green; sort of.

In a bid to dampen the spirit of their critics, Coca-Cola has unleashed the big guns, hoping to step out of the ecologically unfriendly spotlight and in to a brighter happier place. In fact, the entire beverage industry (ok -- that sounds stupid) has taken a lot of heat the past few years, in regards to the reliance on plastics, and the subsequent impact caused on global warming.

So stepping up to the plate, Coca-Cola has initiated two plans that they hope will drag them out of the dog-house, and maybe help the environment, although I imagine the latter was a happy accident.

First off, Coca-Cola has announced a new bottle for their favored products, Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and Coke Zero. The bottle -- which will also sport ridges to make it easier to grip -- will contain 5% less plastic than before, and will also be lighter, at a low 20 ounces.

Having already followed suit in the water industry (oh good grief... they have their own industry?) by reducing the weight of their bottled water, Dasani, it comes in the wake of action being taken by several of America's mayors, who have begun the planned extinction of bottled water.

This announcement came a day before their second, and theoretically bigger, announcement.

Wednesday saw Coca-Cola announce plans to invest $60 million in plans to build a recycling plant, able to recycle nearly 2 billion 20-ounce bottles a year. Opening next year in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and fully operational by 2009, Coke said in their statement that this would be the largest plant in the world capable of making new bottles out of old ones.

Containing polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, a nonrenewable resource made from natural gas and petroleum, Coke said that they wanted to reuse 100% of their bottles in the US.

"We have set an ambitious goal to recycle or reuse all the plastic bottles we use in the U.S. market," Sandy Douglas, president of Coca-Cola North America, said in a statement. "Our investments in recycling infrastructure, coupled with our work on sustainable package design, will help us reach this target."

So, the question falls to me to ask, will this make any impact on Coke's global imprint? Or will the critics continue to hammer away at them?

... I'm off to the supermarket, I want a coke!


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