Plastic Recycling Down 16 Percentage Points in 10 Years

Coke has launched a new campaign to improve the perception of its oft-criticized environmental record, and it has its work cut out for it, according to a story in USA Today. The paper reported today that:

Recycling rates have only recently begun to turn up after falling for years. The rate -- 23.1% in 2005, the latest available -- is 16 percentage points below the 1996 rate, according to the National Association for PET Container Resources, the trade group for the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics industry.

Coke aims to boost the recycled content of its bottles from 10% to 30% and eventually to 100%. It will build a $40 million recycling plant, and invest in programs in some mid-Atlantic cities that have successfully increased recycling rates.

The company has faced a string of criticisms for its environmental performance, primarily aimed at its marketing of so many petroleum-based plastic bottles, which are filled with beverages that require lots of water to produce. This move to boost recycling is a small step in a more sustainable direction.

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