We have worked for several years to build public pressure on beverage industry leader Coca-Cola to take responsibility for the growing plastic bottle waste problem. The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo announced intentions on the same day in December 1990 to use 25 percent recycled plastic in soda bottles sold in the United States. They did this as they were expanding use of plastic for beverage packaging. Both companies abandoned use of recycled plastic to make bottles in the United States by 1994. Coca-Cola currently uses 25 percent recycled plastic in bottles sold in Australia, the home of Coke CEO Douglas Daft, and in other countries including Sweden, Switzerland and New Zealand.
Investor groups recognize that refundable deposits on beverage containers work.
Industry data show that only 1 out of 3 plastic soda bottles are being recycled. Plastic bottle waste doubled between 1994 and 1998 as the beverage industry increased reliance on plastics, according to the Container Recycling Institute. In Georgia, home of Coca-Cola, we buried, burned or littered over 450 million plastic beverage containers in 1999.