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Coca-Cola most common source of packaging pollution on UK beaches: study

theguardian.com

91–100 of 210 posts

Re: Coca-Cola most common source of packaging pollution on UK beaches: study

#91
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also fine you up to $5,000 and give you community service if you litter.

Same goes for Singapore. Crime to littler and also the culture there values cleanliness of the city. When I was there I almost never saw trash on the ground, ever. I once saw a plastic cup get blown off some lady's table and the next person who was working on the street who saw it picked it up and tossed it in the trash bin. Public trash bins are everywhere. Absolutely a world-class city in every sense of it.

Jetlagged in Tokyo one morning (maybe 4:30 AM local), I watched a lady open her eatery.

She cleaned and readied everything inside, swept the front curb of her shop, then proceeded to perfectly sweep the ~10' wide sidewalk in front of her place to the street's edge.

How Tokyo lives with its hyperdensity suddenly made sense.

Re: Coca-Cola most common source of packaging pollution on UK beaches: study

#92

Even with zero packaging, their product is addictive poison. Buffett has spoken proudly of how, normally the human body would not be able to drink that much sugar without getting immediately sick, but the coke formula overcomes that sugar overload response. Disgusting.

What does this have to do with trash?

Re: Coca-Cola most common source of packaging pollution on UK beaches: study

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US we get our sugar from high fructose corn syrup unless we spend more to buy the imported Mexican Coke that's made with real cane sugar.

In the US we get our sugar from high fructose corn syrup unless we spend more to buy the imported Mexican Coke that's made with real cane sugar. When I lived in Seattle, I always found it amusing that soccer moms would brag about buying Mexican Coke at Whole Foods like it was something special. They could just drive an hour north and buy Canadian Coke, which is also made with sugar, for half the price!

Surely not really half the price if you can buy one locally, and have to drive two hours there and back for the other.

Re: Coca-Cola most common source of packaging pollution on UK beaches: study

#94
post #46
post #5

Why don't more drinks come in reusable glassware and milk crates? Are single use cans and cardboard packages cheaper? Safer?

Because reusable usually means crushing the class and making new bottles. Recycled aluminium saves more energy than the glass process.

They're talking about returnables which is how beer used to come. Imagine instead of just recycling your beer bottles you hauled it back to the store for it to be sent back to vendor. I've worked around refillable milk containers and it was a pain in the ass, beer I can only imagine is more so.

Re: Coca-Cola most common source of packaging pollution on UK beaches: study

#95

Thank goodness. Finally, somebody with some clout is pointing fingers at the largest contributor to garbage... the corporations who produce it. I live in Canada and Tim Horton's cups literally litter every street corner in every big city in our country. I have always thought that they should be responsible for the cleanup of those cups. It is absolutely their fault that their customers are throwing their products ont…

"It is absolutely their fault that their customers are throwing their products onto our ground." WAT!

A company is not responsible for it's irresponsible consumers!

Also their no scapegoat for irresponsible people who litter. That is the crux of the issue here.

Rallying against a large corporation because people litter with their product is effectively excusing people who litter. That is wrong - don't go there.

Re: Coca-Cola most common source of packaging pollution on UK beaches: study

#96

Thank goodness. Finally, somebody with some clout is pointing fingers at the largest contributor to garbage... the corporations who produce it. I live in Canada and Tim Horton's cups literally litter every street corner in every big city in our country. I have always thought that they should be responsible for the cleanup of those cups. It is absolutely their fault that their customers are throwing their products ont…

So by that logic, if I sold you a car and you abandoned it in the middle of a busy freeway, it would then be my fault?

I’m not on the side of big business, ever really. But this is insane logic (today it’s all to common too). The PEOPLE doing the littering are the problem, if it’s not a coke can it’s something else. Assign responsibility where it’s deserved. It easy to blame big money and business these days for the shortcomings of people.

Make it a crime with not only a hefty fine, but demanded personal time on community service. Some people don’t care about money, but everyone cares about their time.

It works just fine for the Japanese and in Singapore.

Re: Coca-Cola most common source of packaging pollution on UK beaches: study

#97
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh but we could put each one on the blockchain!

You jest, but that's not far from a good idea. You obviously don't need a blockchain, but you could do something like printing a UID on each bottle and scanning them before giving the refunds.

You are right it was in jest. I stopped short of the colacrypto coin. But your idea sounds good too just some scan and each bottle can be accounted for and at the end of the year have some idea how many make it to recycling.

Re: Coca-Cola most common source of packaging pollution on UK beaches: study

#98
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A small deposit is no incentive. Now if it were a significant amount like $.50-$1.00 per bottle you recycle, then you'd have people literally racing to get those bottles. Then just increase the price on the drinks itself by a bit to make up for that, which is also a disincentive to discourage a number of people from buying them in the first place.

oregon has 90% redemption rate[1] at 10 cents per bottle, so there is obviously some incentive. 1. https://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-bottle-deposit-redem...

It's actually a problem at the moment. After the raise to $0.10 deposit, some people started hauling bottles over from Washington. The way the program is funded depends on less than 100% of bottles being returned.

We need something national. And just bottles isn't going to cover it - single use plastic products are cheap enough, and companies have no incentive not to use them, so of course everyone else ends up dealing with them.

Re: Coca-Cola most common source of packaging pollution on UK beaches: study

#99

Thank goodness. Finally, somebody with some clout is pointing fingers at the largest contributor to garbage... the corporations who produce it. I live in Canada and Tim Horton's cups literally litter every street corner in every big city in our country. I have always thought that they should be responsible for the cleanup of those cups. It is absolutely their fault that their customers are throwing their products ont…

[deleted]

Re: Coca-Cola most common source of packaging pollution on UK beaches: study

#100
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ultimately, the responsibility lies with the corporation if they are instilling a polluting culture that benefits them. There are edge cases in this argument of course, but in my opinion, a large number of companies produce mountains of wasteful unrecyclable packaging in the name of brand-building or low cost. They use this to bolster their business, and therefore they should be ultimately responsible for cleaning it…

If you wanted to talk about the costs of disposing of packaging, then there’s some valid points you could make. But to say producers are responsible for littering is insane. There’s nothing about Coca Cola as a company, or the way their products are packaged, or the way they sell them that would lead me to throw the packaging on the ground rather than in the trash can. Anybody that litters is wholly responsible for t…

People litter because it's convenient. Corporations ignore litter because it's convenient. The truth is everyone plays their part in this, but it is my opinion that those that produce waste must have a plan to deal with it.

For example, Coke could offer to refill their drink bottles, but the truth is, if you're out and about and want another pint of coke, you need to buy another container with it, which ultimately will need to be dealt with by your areas waste management system etc etc.

As a company they contribute so much to waste, and draw such significant profits that they must at least be somewhat implicated for the production of this pollution.

Another angle: if cars are being marketed to everyone left right and centre, and lots of people buy cars that ultimately produce tonnes of greenhouse gasses, who do you hold ultimately accountable for the pollution? the consumer who has had adverts/dreams rammed down their throat or the chaps selling the cars?

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