Coke Pours Bad Business Ethics On Israeli Recycling Laws
by Karin Kloosterman, Jerusalem, Israel on 03. 9.07
It’s more than a problem. It’s an epidemic. Multi-national companies are sabotaging Israel’s modest efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle. Last week we reported on IKEA Israel and the plastic bag fiasco – that Israeli customers will not be charged the 5 cents per bag at IKEA. The latest is that Coca-Cola has asked the Israeli government to suspend the requisite deposit and return service required on all its beverage bottles. According to the Israel Union For Environmental Defence, Coca-Cola is waging a smear campaign attempting to link bottle collection with "criminal elements”; and is asking that Israeli cities expand the voluntary recycling cages on sidewalks instead of improving deposit redemption facilities and accessibility, as required by law. The company claims that most people are not returning the bottles for deposit and that the number of bottles Coca-Cola does get is so limited that it makes it difficult for the company to recycle them in an efficient manner.
Truth be told, most Israelis are not keen on recycling or returning bottles even when there is a 25 Ag (5 cent) deposit on them. Return facilities are limited here. Smaller stores will only take the bottles back if they can be sure the goods were originally purchased there; few people in the city own cars or care to venture to the large grocery stores where they can be sure some of their bottles will be returned. Some Israeli cities do have cages sitting on random street corners waiting to be filled with plastic bottles, but most people aren’t using them. Moreover, a growing number of low-income earners are turning a small profit by collecting bottles from streets, cages and garbage cans. The JPost reports that in December 2005, 80 percent of all beverages purchased that month were eventually recycled. We think Coca-Cola as an experienced and successful beverage leader in Israel should not whine about the 5 cents tagged to its product, but take a stance and show Israeli society why Coca-Cola bottles should be recycled. Is this too much to ask? ::JPost
(Picture of a recycling cage at night in South Tel Aviv)
(Up close of cage - note the layers of dust from ongoing construction in the south end of the city)
Ikea's refusal to charge $0.05 for a bag is a fiasco? That might be a slight exaggeration. Ikea continues to be at the forefront of the campaign to introduce CFLs and perhaps some gratitude is owed. I first bought CFLs for my home many years ago at Ikea and have not looked back
Encouraging positive choices instead of punishing negative will alway be more successful.
gjd,
Is she punishing Ikea, or is she pointing out a shortcoming in company policy? Great...they sell cfl's... that's smart business. Is that enough gratitude? They still, like all businesses, should try to discourage rampant overuse of store bags.
Even thought Ikea did something great along time ago doesn't mean they can't make mistakes. We all do. The idea is to fix it. so anyway, I thought this article was about recycling in Israel. Personally, I doubt much will come from this. Israel isn't going to ammend their laws because some American conglomerate is a big fat cry baby. Some brilliant Israeli businessman will probably start his own company, make a killing while providing much needed jobs for Israelis. So fuck Coca Cola. They have mitz rimon etc. Better stuff to drink than the shit that rots teeth.
You keep getting down on Israel for not having a country-wide recycling policy but how about so recognition of the very many Green practices here that are part of daily life, practices I have never seen used on such scale in, say, the U.S.
For example:
Many hotels and apartment buildings have timer switches in their hallways, i.e. instead having lights that are on all night, you tap a switch and get light for the portion of the hallway you are using for a limited time.
I have never seen so many clothes lines. Clothes lines hang from about, I am estimating, 70 percent of central Tel Aviv.
Most apartments are built with balconies to allow cross breeze and ....to facilitate use of those clotheslines.
Cars are much smaller here. SUVs? There maybe a few around but the typical car -- including all taxicabs -- would hold about six people max.