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Coke's bogus recycling effort
Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that cola giants Coke and Pepsi are bending over backwards to make it look as if they care about recycling plastic water bottles. Bottled water makers have received a motherload of negative publicity lately, and so they've got to play defense. But while the article mentioned the token efforts Coke and Pepsi have
made to reduce their piles in landfills, it fails to note a
small message appearing on selected bottles of Dasani that does more to
undercut recycling efforts than the company's gestures do to help. That
message: NO REFILL. (I've also seen this on a different brand as DO NOT
REFILL).
According to Coca-Cola's customer service line, Dasani bottles are "designed for one-time use." In other words, Coke reps wants you to recycle THEIR way, which means buying lots of Coke bottles and throwing them in the recycling bin. What they don't want you to do is to recycle in the only meaningful sense of the term: to reuse the bottle instead of buying a new one. When I asked Coke's rep why I shouldn't refill my bottle, she told me "Coke doesn't recommend that because of the sterilization process."
Ignoring the tautological reasoning, I think what she meant to say is that I'm dirty.
Posted by carrie on 09/05/2007 | Permalink
Comments
It always amazes me the extent to which people follow the instructions they're given. We homosapiens have some natural servility built into our basic programming. At least most of us do.
Anyway, that being the case, I can entirely see why coke would instruct their pansies (read: purchasers) "NO REFILL". For one, they recognize that you might start to realize that "water is water" and feel just fine with refilling their bottles with good ole (amazingly safe) tap water. That could somehow cut into coke's profits, one would think. Beyond that, they're concerned that you might refill their bottles with tap water which could then possibly be mistaken for "the real thing", and - not having the particular 'taste profile' that Dasani spent so much effort to inculcate - one might come to the mistaken conclusion that this is "just like tap water".
Hence Coke's commands.
Do do do do do
always,
Coca Cola!
mnuez
www.mnuez.blogspot.com
Posted by: mnuez | Sep 5, 2007 8:42:00 PM
I don't think I want them re-filling Dasani bottles, actually. Even if they could be sterilized, do you know what a pain in the ass it would be to check each plastic bottle for damage? Do you imagine some person inspecting for damaged cap threads, miniature holes from getting bent up, or tooth marks from some dumb kid chewing at the top? I'm sure there are many ignorant ways to damage a small plastic bottle-- I can't see how you could advocate their re-use.
I also wonder if you have any statistics that could show that a re-use process (which surely would involve new machinery, hot water for sterilization, and transport of the bottles back to the manufacturer) would be less costly (in resource use, not dollars) than utilizing an already-existing system for recycling the bottles.
Posted by: DaveX | Sep 6, 2007 8:42:40 AM
No one is asking Coke to refill the bottles - that would be ridiculous. I'm talking about refilling and reusing it yourself! I guess I should make that more clear above...
Posted by: carrie | Sep 6, 2007 9:28:15 AM
It makes no sense to me that "no refill" means that bottles shouldn't be reused by the bottler. Why would the bottler be getting used bottles in the first place? *shudder*
Posted by: Charles Star | Sep 6, 2007 2:56:42 PM
I drive a truck many miles each week as part of my "I like to eat regularly" life process. This means I have to live out of fast food places and curb markets (convenience stores). One bottle of Dasani runs me the entire week. I refill constantly out of the hotel taps. I feel like I'm cheating Coca-Cola so much! :-)
Posted by: chak | Sep 9, 2007 3:03:10 AM
What!? Coke still sells Dasani? They released this in the UK a couple years ago but it got banned from sale because it was basically tap water with a load of chemicals in.
The problem with plastic: Plastic bottles degrade when you open them and drink the content. There's some kind of reaction between the water, plastic and air and some cheap bottles will release plastic into the liquid held inside the bottle. Plastic cups for water coolers do this, and that's why water supposed to be from age old springs has a sell by date on it.
Wouldn't surprise me if coke were knocking out cheap bottles and the no refill mark is for health and safety.
Posted by: Tristan | Sep 10, 2007 6:54:40 AM
> Wouldn't surprise me if coke were knocking out cheap bottles and the no refill mark is for health and safety. <
If this is true (and I've certainly read this before), the original serving would be at least as bad -- and probably worse -- than refills. The original serving has weeks, months or even years to stew in the bottle, whereas the refills are usually consumed within a day or three.
Regardless, what you suggest is clearly NOT Coke's position, as is evidenced by its consumer hotline.
Posted by: carrie | Sep 10, 2007 11:24:11 PM
Chemicals! My dad sent me this article about re-using water bottles. Here's an excerpt:
"To be certain that you are choosing a bottle that does not leach, check the recycling symbol on your bottle. If it is a #2 HDPE (high density polyethylene), or a #4 LDPE (low density polyethylene), or a #5 PP (polypropylene), your bottle is fine. The type of plastic bottle in which water is usually sold is usually a #1, and is only recommended for one time use. Do not refill it. Better to use a reusable water bottle, and fill it with your own filtered water from home and keep these single-use bottles out of the landfill."
http://trusted.md/blog/vreni_gurd/2007/03/29/plastic_water_bottles
(Although, I don't know how much I should trust anything named "Trusted.MD")
Basically, don't buy Dasani water bottles AT ALL. Buy a nice, durable sports bottle at your local sports supply store and fill that with the water of your choice forever.
Myself, I've gotten paranoid. Drinking everything out of plastic for all of my childhood and most of my adult life (beer usually doesn't come in plastic...) has probably given me some kind of brain damage... How bad are hot beverage cups then? Imagine filling a Dasani bottle with hot water and then drinking out of it! I try not to drink out of plastic at all if I can help it...!
Have you seen those street punks who drink green tea out of mason jars? It's a great idea. The lid screws on tight, so it's portable.
Posted by: Gilbert | Sep 25, 2007 2:44:54 PM
Well, that actually reminds me of Threadless t-shirts' labels, they say "do not wash, buy a new one". obviously this one is sarcastic, but who ever listens to labels anyway?
Posted by: Josh | Sep 26, 2007 2:53:13 PM
The problem is that if a bottle isn't designed for reuse, you do get a lot of bacterial growth. I once reused a bunch of Poland Spring bottles to store tap water right after 9/11 and after a couple of weeks, when I opened them, they had the worst ungodly smell and the water was basically undrinkable. Had I used bottles that were designed for reuse, the water would have been fine. So the problem with Coke is that they are bottling their product with bottles that can't be reused, not that they are discouraging us from reusing in the first place (though de facto, they are).
If you want to be ecologically-minded, get a Brita filter and a reusable bottle. Fill bottle from Brita filter. Enjoy.
And don't buy Coke products. I haven't in about 12 years. Dasani puts a bit of salt in their water so you'll drink more.
Posted by: lilbangladesh | Nov 19, 2007 11:29:59 AM
The problem with this writeup is the author clearly missed the point of the No Refill stamp, though a couple of commenters have gotten close to why it's really there. Basically you're confusing No Refill with the idea of "Do Not Reuse", which are two distinct topics. The No Refill stamp stems from when companies switched from the "refillable" "non-recyclable" glass bottles to the "recyclable" "non-refillable" plastic bottles. In the past, soda bottles (which were usually smaller) were made of heavy glass for durability and therefore costly to manufacture. These had painted labels which would also not wear away easily. Upon store purchase, they usually included a deposit to insure the manufacturer would get back their bottle, to offset the cost of making a new one. These empties were returned by the consumer to the store which would refund the deposit, then given back to the distributor to be cleaned and refilled with product and recapped. Often they were also washed and refilled in restaurants/soda fountains, both practices which are still done in some countries outside the U.S. where No Refill stamp doesn't exist. I still saw this as recent as 2007 abroad so I know it still exists.
Contrast the old way of refilling/reusing with the current recycling programs in many U.S. states where they collect a deposit to help divert (insure) many bottles and cans from ending up in landfills. Note that when the plastic bottles were first used but recycling programs didn't exist yet in most places, the bottles were double stamped as "No Deposit No Refill". This was eventually shortened to No Refill where recycling programs took over.
In either case, the No Refill has nothing to do with telling the consumer what they can or can't do with the Dasani bottle, even though as their c.s. rep pointed out they do not recommend reuse due to the cheap bottles. And as others have pointed out, the #1 (PETE) bottles used by Coke, Pepsi, etc for their products DO leech chemicals into the liquid when reused, kept beyond their expiration date, or stored incorrectly i.e. in overly warm surroundings.
p.s. lilbangladesh most waters contain traces of sodium and other minerals which are added primarily for taste. Check the label and you'll notice this is not a nutritionally significant amount. Compare several bottled drinking waters side by side and you'll find the ones with the very low mineral content are slightly less appealing.
Enjoy.
Posted by: bri | Nov 26, 2007 5:45:07 PM
Sorry, but you're wrong. Bottles haven't been refilled by manufacturers in the US for decades. And, again, Coke's own customer service line (clearly repeating a script) told me that "No refill" is there to discourage consumers from re-using the bottle.
Posted by: carrie | Nov 27, 2007 3:43:28 PM
The tap water in North America is for the most part very good. We have excellent infrastructures and the water is safe because it is chlorinated. The problem is though that many people don't like the taste of chlorine in their water. In their minds they also frequently equate chlorine with other toxic chemicals.
If you held a blind taste test in any major N.A. City and served de-chlorinated tap water VS any brand of bottled water, it would be doubtful that very many people would be able to tell you which was which.
From this we can basically conclude that people drink bottled water because of the fact that it doesn't contain chlorine and the fervent marketing efforts of the bottled water companies.
I say forget bottled water. Buy a nice stainless steel Klean Kanteen sport bottle (to avoid the Bisphenol A in polycarbonate bottles) and filter your tap water to remove the chlorine. Plan ahead and keep a jug in your fridge. If you don't want to refill you sport bottle from the gas station bathroom when you are out and about you can always buy a refill of cold, safe, filtered tap water from an eco-friendly machine like the one from watervend.com
Every sport bottle of water you drink is one less water bottle made, hauled, recycled or discarded.
Don't forget to run your sport bottle through the dishwasher once in a while.
Posted by: Maxwell Hammer | Feb 6, 2008 7:35:54 PM
