NSW Government joins in Coca Cola greenwash - 21 May 2008

Revised press release / CORRECTION

Please note the corrections in paragraph 2 of this release. Coca Cola Amatil are drawing on the aquifer at Mangrove Mountain, however the company state that the percentage of the resource they are directly responsible for extracting is 1 – 2% of the total water allocation. Please note also that Coca Cola’s bottling ratio for water production is 1.3 litres of water to make 1 finished litre of bottled water. Our initial release claimed incorrectly that Coca Cola use 2.4 litres in the bottling process to produce 1 litre of water. The 2.4 litre figure cited in our original release refers to an analysis of the consumption of bottled water over the product’s life, conducted by National Campaign Coordinator for the Boomerang Alliance, Dave West. This figure refers to water consumed in the packaging, production and disposal of the product.

The Minister for Emergency Services and Water - Nathan Rees – has taken time out of his schedule to visit Coca Cola - a major donor - and present them with a 5-star rating for water management.

“It’s quite ironic that Coca Cola have been given recognition for water efficiency at one of their plants in Sydney yesterday. An analysis of the consumption of bottled water over the product’s life, reveals that at least 2.4 litres of water is used for every litre of bottled water consumed,” said Upper House Greens MP Ian Cohen.

“The Department of Environment and Climate Change – of which Nathan Rees was temporarily the Minister for – banned bottled water use within their department at the end of last year citing the environmental costs of production, transportation, refrigeration and disposal.

“DECC calculated that about 200ml of oil is used to produce each litre bottle of water, including in the plastic, transportation and refrigeration. More than 60,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions enter the atmosphere each year from the consumption of 250 million litres of bottled water in Australia – equivalent to the emissions from 13,000 cars.

“Clean Up Australia claim that 2.7 million tonnes of plastic are used to bottle water around the world annually and that Australians buy 118,000 tonnes of plastic drink bottles a year but only recycle 35 per cent of them. Thanks in part to Coca Cola’s ongoing opposition to Container Deposit Legislation, the remaining 76,700 tonnes either goes to landfill or ends up as litter.

“Dave West from the Boomerang Alliance says that drinking tap water instead of bottled for just one year, will produce 75% less waste, consume 85% less energy and will reduce water consumption by 58%.

Ian Cohen recently called for a moratorium on all political donations from beverage companies, particularly whilst a national review of the viability of a container deposit scheme is underway. Coca Cola have donated over $900,000 to the ALP over the last nine years.

“Voluntary waste management schemes have consistently failed to achieve targets for recycling and resource recovery. It’s time for container deposit legislation,” said Mr Cohen.

Further Information: Ian Cohen: 0409 989 466 or Nic Clyde on 0417 742 754