FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Pat Franklin, 703/276-9800
Executive Director

Last Year More Than 45 Billion Aluminum Cans Did Not Get Recycled

Last year Americans recycled 56 billion and discarded a record 46 billion cans

ARLINGTON, VA (April 22, 1999) -- The Container Recycling Institute (CRI), a nonprofit research group reports that since the first Earth Day Americans have landfilled more than 750 billion aluminum beverage cans."Despite the high value of aluminum can scrap," said Pat Franklin, Executive Director of CRI, "the recycling rate for aluminum cans dropped to 56 percent in 1998, its lowest point in ten years."

"Falling recycling rates for aluminum cans - the premier recyclable - and other scrap materials, is not a great Earth Day birthday present," Franklin said. CRI's data reveals that of the 102 billion aluminum cans sold in the U.S. last year, an estimated 56 billion cans were recycled and a record number of cans -- 46 billion -- ended up in landfills.

"The tens of billions of aluminum cans landfilled last year are just part of a much bigger 'waste' picture," said Franklin. "Mining, obtaining energy for refining and the refining process itself have enormous environmental impact." She pointed out that it takes the same amount of energy to make one new aluminum can from raw materials as it does to make four new cans from scrap cans.

CRI's research shows that while the national recycling rate for aluminum cans has dropped to 56 percent, the average recycling rate for aluminum cans and other beverage containers is 80 percent or higher in states where these containers have a deposit value of a nickel or a dime and below 50 percent in other states. "The five or ten-cent incentive keeps bottles and cans off of streets and beaches and out of landfills in Michigan, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Oregon, Maine, Vermont and Iowa. Even in California where beverage cans have a 2.5 cent value, the recycling rate for aluminum cans was 75 percent last year."

Franklin says she recognizes and applauds the aluminum can manufacturing industry's successful efforts at source reduction by reducing the weight of aluminum cans by 40 percent over the past twenty years. "While I don't doubt their commitment to the environment, it is a fact that can manufacturers realize huge energy savings by making new cans out of used cans. This cost savings is the primary motivation."

Noting that the aluminum can recycling rate is lower than it was in 1990, when curbside recycling was in its infancy, she said, "It should be obvious, by now that we cannot rely on the curbside recycling infrastructure to boost recycling rates for aluminum cans. It would appear that the only way to get the recycling rate above 70 percent is through a deposit return system."

Franklin said a National Bottle Bill was introduced in Congress today by Sen. James Jeffords (R-VT) that would require a 10-cent deposit on aluminum, glass and plastic beverage containers. Jefford's bill would exempt any state that can show they are recycling their beverage containers at a rate of 70 percent or higher within a year after enactment.

"With the huge decline in beverage container recycling, the time may just be ripe for a national bottle bill," Franklin said. "Without it, we can look forward to reaching the trillion mark for aluminum cans landfilled by Earth Day 2004."

Plastic 20-Ounce Coke Bottle Creates Huge Profits For Coca-Cola And Huge Costs For America's Cities

Group calls on Coca-Cola chairman Ivester to cut plastic bottle waste by making new bottles out of old bottles

ARLINGTON, DC -- (November 12, 1998) Plastic 16 and 20-ounce soda bottles which were non-existent ten years ago, now make up 14 percent of the soft drink market. But the same plastic bottles that generate huge profits for the Coca-Cola Company and its bottlers create huge costs for cities, according to The Container Recycling Institute (CRI), a nonprofit, education organization that studies container and packaging waste issues.

What is fueling the growth of the 20-ounce no-return plastic bottle? "The answer is simple," said Pat Franklin, Executive Director of CRI. "Profits! The single-serve plastic bottle brings a profit of $5.34 for the bottler and $8.86 per case for the retailer. A bottler has to sell 26 cases of cans for every single case of 20-ounce plastic bottles to make the same dollar profit."

According to CRI, an estimated 10 billion plastic Coke bottles were sold last year in the U.S., more than 6 billion of which were disposed of at taxpayer expense. The group is calling on Mr. M. Doug Ivester, Chairman and CEO of, The Coca-Cola Company, to recycle old bottles into new bottles to reduce the waste going to landfills and incinerators and save municipal governments what CRI estimates is tens of millions of dollars a year in disposal costs.

"We hope to draw attention to the waste taxpayers are left to deal with after the world's leading soft drink manufacturer pockets the profits from their plastic bottle," said Franklin. Along with the GrassRoots Recycling Network and dozens of other environmental groups and recyclers we are urging the millions of Coke consumers who also recycle, to join the COKE - TAKE IT BACK! campaign by mailing back their plastic soda bottles to The Coca-Cola Company. The message to Coke is, "Take this bottle and make it into a new bottle."

Franklin says that the Coca-Cola Company alone could keep about 200 million pounds of soda bottles out of the waste stream next year if they used just 25 percent recycled content in their plastic bottles. "This would also boost the recycling rate for plastic soda bottles which has dropped every year for the past three years and is now at just 36 percent," she said.

She noted that the plastic soda bottle has made the glass soda bottle an 'antique' and is poised to do the same to the aluminum can. "Both glass bottles and aluminum cans are made with recycled materials," said Franklin, "and we want Coke to make their plastic bottles out of old bottles. They're doing it in Australia and other countries and they can do it here in their own backyard?"

"The next time you say, "Coca-Cola", just remember that in the one second it took you to say those two words, 200 plastic Coke bottles were dumped in a landfill somewhere in the USA -- 200 every second, 700,000 every hour, 17 million every day, more than 6 billion every year -- all at taxpayers expense. It's 'corporate subsidy' and a 'solid waste'," said Franklin.

Soda Companies Use 4.9 Billion Imported Scrap Aluminum Cans To Inflate Soft Drink Container Recycling Rate

ARLINGTON, VA (November 23, 1998) -- The Container Recycling Institute (CRI) today called the newly released soft drink container recycling figures "bogus", because they include 4.9 billion aluminum 'used beverage cans' (UBC's) imported last year from Canada, Mexico and many other countries. The cans were sold abroad and brought into the U.S. as empty, scrap cans to be recycled into new cans.

Pat Franklin, Executive Director of CRI explained that the 4.9 billion aluminum cans represent the soft drink portion of the total 7.4 billion scrap aluminum beverage cans imported in 1997. "The soft drink industry, again this year, counted the imported scrap cans (UBC's) in the number of containers recycled, but not in the number of containers sold, thus inflating the recycling rate" said Franklin.

The research and education organization located in Arlington, Virginia has called on The Coca-Cola-Cola Company, Pepsi Cola and their trade association, The National Soft Drink Association (NSDA), to readjust their recycling numbers to reflect the imported used aluminum cans. "It does not serve the recycling industry well, or the general public, to have inaccurate recycling numbers reported," said Franklin.

NSDA announced on November 12th that a record number of soda containers (51.9 billion) were recycled last year and that the recycling rate increased from 57.6 percent to 58.7 percent. But, according to CRI, the total number of soft containers recycled in 1997 was 47 billion, not 51.9 billion, and the soft drink container recycling rate remained exactly the same as in 1996 - 53.2 percent.

"The issue we want to raise," said Franklin, "is the continued manipulation of figures by an industry that purports to be a 'friend' of the environment and of recycling." She said that the

trade association representing Coke and Pepsi boasts that "as another part of its commitment to recycling and the environment, NSDA is serving as a second-year sponsor of America Recycles Day (ARD)."

Franklin pointed out that the soft drink industry misrepresented their recycling numbers last year by including imported UBC's and by using one method of calculating the plastic bottle recycling rate for 1995 another method of calculating the plastic bottle recycling rate for 1996. "Friends don't misrepresent facts and distort figures," said Franklin.

"Perhaps the greatest irony is the NSDA's opposition to proposed and existing bottle bills, which require deposits on soft drink and other beverage containers," said Franklin. She noted that NSDA president William L. Ball, III credits comprehensive curbside recycling programs for the high soft drink container recycling rate. "But," said Franklin, " based on data in the "U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 'Characterization of Municipal Solid Waste: 1997 UPDATE' soft drink and beer containers are recycled at an average rate of 78 percent by weight in states where they have a deposit value, and only 26 percent in the other 40 states.

"In other words," said Franklin, "3 out of 4 beer and soda containers are recycled in bottle bill states and 1 out of 4 beer and soda containers are recycled in non-bottle bill states. The relatively high levels of soft drink and beer container recycling compared to other containers, is due to the high rates of recovery in the ten bottle bill states not curbside recycling programs."

CRI has called on NSDA to be up front with the public about their soft drink container recycling calculations. "If they are a true friend of recycling, let them come forward with the true soft drink container recycling numbers and recycling rate."

The Container Recycling Institute is a nonprofit, research and public education organization studying container and packaging issues. CRI has tracked beverage container recycling rates and trends annually since 1991.
# # #

NOTE: Data available in table format

* Source: National Soft Drink Association (NOTE: CRI does not agree with the estimated number of soft drink containers shipped or recycled, but has used these numbers to avoid confusion.)

** Source: Aluminum: Aluminum Association; Glass: Glass Packaging Institute; PET soda: American Plastics Council

*** These numbers were calculated by CRI based on data from the US Geological Survey, Bureau of the Census 1997 & 1998. According to the Census Bureau, the number of used scrap aluminum beverage cans imported for recycling in the US was 5.745 billion in 1996 and 7.393 billion in 1997. According to NSDA 64.3 billion soft drink cans were shipped in 1996 or 65% of the 99 billion aluminum cans shipped; and 66.1 billion were shipped in 1997 or 66% of the 100.5 billion cans shipped in 1997. Thus, 65% of the 5.745 billion imported scrap cans, or 3.73 billion cans, should be deducted from aluminum soft drink cans recycled in 1996; and 66% of the 7.393 billion imported scrap cans, or 4.88 billion cans should be deducted from aluminum soft drink cans recycled in 1997.