>
> Container Recycling Institute
> 1911 Ft Myer Drive, Suite 900 · Arlington, VA 22209
> 703/276-9800 fax 703/276-9587
> email: [log in to unmask] on the web:www.igc.apc.org/cri/
>
>
>
>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Pat Franklin 703/276-9800
>
>
> Plastic 20-ounce Coke Bottle Creates Huge Profits for Coca-Cola
> and Huge Costs for America's Cities
>
>Group calls on Coca-Cola Chairman Ivester to Cut Plastic Bottle Waste
>by Making new Bottles out of old Bottles
>
>ARLINGTON, DC -- (November 13, 1998) Plastic 16 and 20-ounce soda bottles
>which were non-existent ten years ago, now make up 14 percent of the soft
>drink market. But the same plastic bottles that generate huge profits
for
>the Coca-Cola Company and its bottlers create huge costs for cities,
>according to The Container Recycling Institute (CRI), a nonprofit,
education
>organization that studies container and packaging waste issues.
>
>What is fueling the growth of the 20-ounce no-return plastic bottle? "The
>answer is simple," said Pat Franklin, Executive Director of CRI.
"Profits!
>The single-serve plastic bottle brings a profit of $5.34 for the bottler
and
>$8.86 per case for the retailer. A bottler has to sell 26 cases of cans
for
>every single case of 20-ounce plastic bottles to make the same dollar
profit."
>
>According to CRI, an estimated 10 billion plastic Coke bottles were sold
>last year in the U.S., more than 6 billion of which were disposed of at
>taxpayer expense. The group is calling on Mr. M. Doug Ivester, Chairman
>and CEO of, The Coca-Cola Company, to recycle old bottles into new bottles
>to reduce the waste going to landfills and incinerators and save municipal
>governments what CRI estimates is tens of millions of dollars a year in
>disposal costs.
>
>"We hope to draw public attention to the waste taxpayers are left to deal
>with after the world's leading soft drink manufacturer pockets the profits
>from their plastic bottle," said Franklin.
>Along with the GrassRoots Recycling Network and dozens of other
>environmental groups and recyclers we are urging the millions of Coke
>consumers who also recycle, to join the COKE - TAKE IT BACK!
>campaign by mailing back their plastic soda bottles to The
>Coca-Cola Company with this message "Make new soda bottles out of old soda
>bottles."
>
>Franklin says that the Coca-Cola Company alone could keep about 200
million
>pounds of soda bottles out of the waste stream next year if they used just
>25 percent recycled content in their plastic bottles. "This would also
>boost the recycling rate for plastic soda bottles which has dropped every
>year for the past three years and is now at just 36 percent," she said.
>
>She noted that the plastic soda bottle has made the glass soda bottle an
>'antique' and has begun to erode aluminum can market share. "Both glass
>bottles and aluminum cans are made with recycled materials," said
Franklin,
>and we want Coke to make their plastic bottles out of old bottles."
>Franklin says Coke is using recycled content in their plastic soda bottles
>in Australia and other countries and says there is no reason they can't do
>it 'here in their own backyard'.
>
>"The next time you say, "Coca-Cola", just remember that in the one second
it
>took you to say those two words, 200 plastic Coke bottles were dumped in a
>landfill somewhere in the USA -- 200 every second, 700,000 every hour, 17
>million every day, more than 6 billion every year -- all at taxpayers
>expense. It's 'corporate subsidy' and a 'solid waste'," said Franklin.
>
> # # #
>Pat Franklin, Executive Director
>Container Recycling Institute
>1911 Ft Myer Drive, Ste 900
>Arlington, VA 22209
>tel: 703/276-9800 fax: 276-9587 email: [log in to unmask]
>on the web at www.igc.apc.org/cri/
>
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