Coca-Cola apparently goes better with container deposits after-all: VP in UK tells Sky News that deposits now needed
This is big news for the solid waste and recycling sector. Coca-Cola, a multinational monolith now says that a "UK-wide deposit scheme is key to increasing recycling rates and reducing littering." In an exclusive interview with Sky News in the UK, Julian Hunt, Vice-President of Coca-Cola European Partners said: "Deposits are going to play a role in how we improve packaging recovery."
https://news.sky.com/story/ocean-rescue-coca-cola-backs-plastic-bottle-deposit-scheme-11084049
In the 1970s and 1980s while Coke Ad Execs tried to teach the world to sing its corporate managers worked ferociously to dismantle its refillable and deposit-based container systems in the USA, Canada and other developed nations. It soon became the darling of investors, e.g. praised and loved by Warren Buffet for decades using a slash and burn approach to buying up and dismantling local bottlers and selling off its lucrative infrastructure and real estate. This facilitated consolidation and automation in the soft drink industry, a shift to single use plastic and metal containers that could theoretically be recycled, and a massive reduction in their unionized forces.
I have documented the transition in my 2012 book:
My Municipal Recycling Program made me fat and sick: How well intentioned environmentalists teamed up with the soft drink industry to promote obesity and injure workers
https://www.amazon.ca/Municipal-Recycling-Program-made-environmentalists-ebook/dp/B00918AP9I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1508290890&sr=8-1&keywords=David+McRobert+My+Municipal+Recycling
See also:
https://davidmcrobert.ca/mcguinty-michelle-obama-urged-to-impose-tax-deposit-system-on-soft-drinks-to-fight-obesity/
For those of us who always viewed the transition to single-use, non-deposit plastic and metal soft drink containers as a questionable experiment and have worked to re-establish deposits on bottles and other containers for decades, this is a very positive shift. There is no doubt the writing was on the wall so to speak as the issue of plastic container waste in oceans, waterways, lakes and on land has grown. The discovery of plastic fibres in many drinking water supplies also has raised alarm bells in many circles.
Among my questions that arise from this apparent shift at the world's largest bottler: will Coca-Cola shift to refillable glass and plastic containers and re-establish local bottling plants, creating jobs in the process and building stronger connections to communities? Will the company support deposits that will ensure adequate return rates? Will you help central and local governments pay to educate consumers on the value of deposits on containers and other materials after working so hard to convince millions they were not needed?
https://news.sky.com/story/ocean-rescue-coca-cola-backs-plastic-bottle-deposit-scheme-11084049
Coke admits that curbside recycling has stalled in UK, urges deposits
Some quotes:
By Thomas Moore, Science Correspondent
Britain's biggest drinks manufacturer has told Sky News that plastic bottles should be sold with a deposit that is returned when customers bring back the empty.
Until recently Coca-Cola viewed deposits on bottles as a threat to its business.
But the company now says household "kerbside" recycling has "stalled" and it can't source enough clean plastic to meet its environmental targets.
:: Attenborough calls for plastic cutbacks
Coke has been called to appear before the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee on Tuesday and will argue that a UK-wide deposit scheme is key to increasing recycling rates and reducing littering.In an exclusive interview Julian Hunt, Vice-President of Coca-Cola European Partners said: "Deposits are going to play a role in how we improve packaging recovery.
:: Sky Ocean Rescue: How to get involved
"There is no doubt that if we get a well-designed system that works for everybody then our experience from other markets is that it improves the amount of material collected as well as the quality - and those two things are key."
In Norway, which has a deposit system, 96% of drinks bottles are recycled into new ones, a so-called circular economy.
Coke currently includes 25% recycled material in its bottles, which it sources from Clean Tech, Britain's largest plastic processor.