The University of Denver Environmental Team (DUET) spent Earth Day holding Pepsi accountable for a corporate promise made in 1990.
In an extraordinary example of corporate collective thought, both Coca-Cola and Pepsi promised to use 25 percent recycled plastic in manufacturing their beverage containers. When the activist pressure became less intense for the soda giants, so did the two companies commitment to their recycling promise.
Consumption of soda has increased substantially among Americans since 1990.
Eric Schlosser’s book, Fast Food Nation, reports that Americans drink “soda at an annual rate of about 56 gallons per person. That’s nearly 600 12-ounce cans of soda per person.” Excessive soda consumption leads to a higher probability of calcium deficiencies and an increased chance for bone fractures.
This mass consumption of soft drinks produces a ton of waste, literally. The increased waste produced by American consumption of soda products during the last 12 years has not resulted in either Pepsi or Coca-Cola doing much to reduce the amount of waste going into landfills, despite promises made by both companies.
In the late 1990s, groups such as Grassroots Recycling Network initiated a campaign to insure that Coca-Cola would use recycled material in its bottles. But these days, corporate response and attitudes have been changing.
Recycling groups began a campaign of mailing used Coca-Cola containers back to the company’s headquarters in Atlanta. This campaign has begun to see results; in 2001. Coca-Cola immediately implemented a policy of 10 percent recycled content in the manufacturing of its bottles. Coca-Cola’s positive step towards 25 percent recycled plastic in its bottles is a solitary corporate response. Pepsi has done nothing to increase its recycled content in the manufacturing of its plastic bottles.
To increase Pepsi’s awareness of its broken promise and the benefits of recycling, groups such as Ecopledge.com and DUET have joined the campaign to mail back Pepsi bottles to its headquarters.
On Monday, 543 members of the university community stopped by the DUET table, signed a bottle and helped make a positive and tangible statement.
It was a great and ecologically conscious way to celebrate Earth Day.
