Green Room... Coke Recycles the Past in a Precious Metal Masterpiece
Coca-Cola GB, Boots, Recycle Week, SABMiller,
A spectacular 100m artwork made solely from used aluminum cans has been unveiled on top of the chalk cliffs of the Sussex coastline to mark the beginning of Recycle Week (22-28 June 2009). Transforming thousands of used aluminium collected from around Great Britain into the world's largest recycled artwork - dubbed Precious Metal - has taken a team of artists a week to complete and can only be fully viewed from the air. The artwork - inspired by a classic 1949 summer poster from The Coca-Cola Company archives of a swimsuit-clad lady relaxing in the sun - is designed to inspire consumers to recycle more this summer through reminding them of the inherent value of empty cans and bottles. Recycling aluminium is 20 times more energy-efficient than making it from scratch. At the end of Recycle Week each of the 200,000 cans will be recycled saving enough energy to keep a television running for seventy years2.
Liz Lowe, Citizenship Manager at Coca-Cola Great Britain, said:
"Old cans aren't just waste, they're precious metal. They can live forever through recycling, to be used time and time again to make a whole number of new things saving huge amounts of energy and raw materials.
"With this simple message want to inspire people to think twice about binning their empty bottles and cans...an empty drinks can that you recycle today could be back on the shelf as a brand new one in just six weeks3."
Coca-Cola is working with WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) to install Recycle Zones around the UK to help make it easier for people to recycle their cans and bottles when they're out and about - in places like shopping centres, theme parks, airports, university campuses and at outdoor events. Launched a year ago, there are now 20 active Recycle Zones with another 60 on the way before 2011. Already over 20 tonnes of recycled materials have been collected through Recycle Zones' bins.
Laura Underwood, spokesperson for WRAP said "Protecting the environment is one of the biggest challenges facing all of us and the scale of this artwork represents the size of the issue. We hope that Coca-Cola's piece will inspire consumers to recycle more - not just during Recycle Week - but into the future."
The Precious Metal project is the latest in a series of Coke initiatives to remind consumers of the benefits of recycling soft drink cans and bottles by illustrating that packaging is not just waste, but can have a second life through recycling.
Tom Gribbin, Senior Campaign Manager, Together said:
"Coca-Cola's ambition to make it easier for us to recycle while we're out and about is good news for the environment. By illustrating the wonderful things that can be made from used aluminium cans, Coca-Cola can use its power as a brand to help us all see the benefits of this simple behaviour. Help and inspiration on recycling is also a compelling contribution from Coca-Cola to the Together campaign's growing list of easy things everyone can do to fight climate change."
Coca-Cola has teamed up with WRAP's Recycle Now campaign to encourage us to all do a little more to recycle this week. To pledge to do more go to www.cokezone.co.uk/recyclenow where you also have the chance to win a bespoke recycled sculpture from Robert Bradford, the lead artist behind this unique project. To find out more about recycling, consumers should visit www.recyclenow.co.uk.
The Fairtrade Certification has announced that 57 beauty products have gained certification, from companies including Boots, Lush and Neal's and Yard. T he Fairtrade products include lip balms, face masks, body butters and shower gels. Each product contains at least one Fairtrade-certified ingredient such as cocoa butter or brazil nut oil. The scheme aims to help disadvantaged producers from countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
To coincide with Recycle Week, a new universal on-pack recycling label is being launched to consumers by leading retailers. For the first time, it will provide customers with standardised information on whether packaging can be recycled. The single, industry-supported label replaces the potentially confusing range of symbols previously used. Companies representing more than a third of UK retailing (both food and non-food) have already signed up to the label and many more are expected to. Suppliers and brand manufacturers, including Tate and Lyle and Weetabix, have also joined the scheme. The initiative builds on retailers' existing green commitments. It is being highlighted to consumers in Recycle Week to boost UK household recycling rates by giving customers the information they need to ensure more of the material that can be recycled is recycled.
SABMiller plans to halve carbon emissions used to make a litre of beer by 2020, enabling the brewer to freeze total emissions across its brands at current levels.
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