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Originally appeared in Plastics News, November 2, 2001

Coke exceeds recycled-content timeline

By Steve Toloken
PLASTICS NEWS STAFF


ATLANTA (Nov. 2, 2001 1:20 p.m. EST) -- Coca-Cola Co. now is using recycled PET in three of every four of its bottles in North America, ahead of the schedule the company set for itself.

Coke spokeswoman Natalie Rule said the company is using 10 percent recycled content in 75 percent of its bottles in the United States and Canada. The company's goal this year was to have recycled content in half its bottles, she said.

The company quietly released the news to shareholder groups that are pressuring the soft drink company, and to a recycling organization. Members of both groups praised the progress, and each noted that Coke has accomplished much more than rival PepsiCo Inc.

But both investors and environmentalists said Coke still needs to present more tangible plans for increasing PET bottle recovery.

"We recognize that Coke obviously put a significant effort into attaining those levels," said Ken Scott, a research analyst at Walden Asset Management, a Boston company that describes itself as a socially responsible investment firm. "What we've been looking for is timeline and structure of where they are headed on container recovery."

Scott said the "socially responsible" investor groups are debating whether to renew their pro-recycling shareholder resolution with Coke next year.

Bill Sheehan, executive director of the GrassRoots Recycling Network in Athens, Ga., said "there is no question that is progress, and there is no question they are way ahead of Pepsi, but at the same time it´s a small step forward."

Coke officials had no comment on what collection ideas they are considering. Scott said the company has shared some with the "socially responsible" investor groups, but he declined to talk about them.

In a memo given to the Atlanta-based Businesses and Environmentalists Allied for Recycling group that it is working with on a recycling study, Coke said that when it started putting recycled content in bottles in 1998, it set a target of getting to 10 percent in all its bottles. After that, it said, it would take a look at the percentage of recycled plastic in each bottle.

Coke officials would not comment on their future plans, but Scott said it "is interesting to note that when we asked for 25 percent recycled content over five years, that is the pace they are going."

Coke's announcement comes as PepsiCo had a minor dust-up with some environmentalists over a report that it planned to eliminate recycled content PET in the bottles of its subsidiary, Gatorade.

A report in the newsletter Plastics Recycling Update said Pepsi's Quaker Oats unit told officials at Continental PET Technologies to stop using recycled PET. But Pepsi spokeswoman Elaine Palmer said the company has no plans to change Gatorade's use of recycled PET.

Palmer said the marketing department had some concerns that prompted raising the issue of recycled content. She declined to be more specific.

"They resolved the issues, so there are not going to be any changes," Palmer said.

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