Coca Cola is Going Green

Yes, coke is going green. Well, green-ish. At least in Japan. We told you about how a . Japanese burger chain is turning their burger-and-bun waste into energy to power a local steel mill. We told you about a town in Vermont that gets its power from local cow poop. Back to Japan and the junk food business: Methane processing is making its way into the beverage industry.

The Coca-Cola Central Japan Co. started its own trash-to-energy program in November 2004. The one methane fermentation plant can process 2,532 tons of coffee grounds, 844 tons of used tea leaves and 3,750 tons of sludge per year. The reduced waste and CO2 emissions certainly fit with Coke-Japan’s admirable corporate statement that they “will respect the global environment, and actively work toward environmental preservation” (FYI-Coke USA makes nowhere near as direct a statement), but it will save them cash as well.

By making clean-burning bio-fuel from their garbage, the Coke company will save 64 million yen (about U.S. $577,000) per year on waste disposal fees and 8.7 million yen (about U.S. $78,000) on light and fuel costs.

The program is being carried out as a joint research project between Coke Japan and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, an agency of the Japanese national government. Can you say Kyoto?

::Via Japan for Sustainability
[by Tamara Holt]