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Statement in support of Shareholder Recycling Resolution By Pat Franklin, Executive Director, Container Recycling Institute
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| Mr. Reinemund, members of the board of directors
and shareholders, my name is Pat Franklin. I'm executive director of
the Container Recycling Institute (CRI), a nonprofit research and public
education organization that studies container and packaging recycling
issues, and advocates sustainable practices. Thank you for the opportunity
to address Item Number 6 on the agenda today. We have a problem in this country, Mr.Reinemund, and Pepsi cans and bottles are part of that problem. Beverage container waste is growing at an alarming rate, increasing more than 50% since 1992. The increase in wasting is due primarily to the growing number of single-serving beverages in throwaway containers. These beverages are frequently consumed away from home and away from convenient recycling opportunities. As Pepsi's reliance on plastic packaging grows, so too does the problem of plastic bottle waste. Today, three out of four plastic beverage bottles are thrown away rather than recycled. Three out of four! Even aluminum cans, the most recycled package on the market, is experiencing a decline in both recycling rates and the number of cans recycled over the last several years. Item Number 6 calls on PepsiCo to achieve an 80% national recycling rate for bottles and cans. As you may know, 10 states and one city requiring a refundable deposit on beverage cans and bottles, already achieve an average 80 percent recycled rate for these containers. The deposit in these so-called bottle bill states serves as an incentive to recycle and a disincentive to litter. In the remaining 40 states, Pepsi containers are recycled at rates below 40% on average. Financial incentives are the only answer to increasing collection and recycling of beverage containers in the United States. Pepsi and its trade associations continue to oppose container deposits even though 75% of the public supports bottle bills. The negative lobbying that persists engenders ill will and distrust among consumers. During this meeting Americans will throwaway more than 5 million Pepsi soft drink bottles and cans. I know you will agree that this is a waste. And, in the words of Peter Coors, "All waste is lost profit." The greatest environmental impacts of beverage container waste accrue not in landfills, where they represent less than 5% of garbage by weight, but in remote locations in the U.S. and the world where raw materials are mined, refined and smelted to reproduce 'replacement' containers for those that have been lost to the garbage heap. All of this wasted aluminum must be replaced by aluminum made from virgin materials using an electricity-intensive primary smelting process. The electricity wasted by not recycling Pepsi cans alone is about 6 billion kilowatt-hours -- enough to supply almost 700,000 U.S. homes for a year. This is the equivalent of 3.6 million barrels of crude oil. I urge the company to stop the trashing the planet with Pepsi beverage containers and to stop wasting the earth's finite resources. Be a leader in recycling, not in wasting. Be the first soft drink company to adopt an 80% recycling goal for all of your beverage cans and bottles. Take the Challenge, and challenge your competitors to do the same! |
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