> > 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/ > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To get off the IOWA-TOPICS list, send email to [log in to unmask] Make the message text (not the Subject): SIGNOFF IOWA-TOPICS