Mood:
sadTopic: corporates
Media Release from Ian Cohen MLC
15th May 2008
Greens to Coca Cola: “stop political donations, start container
deposit”
As Coca Cola Amatil (CCA) emerged from their AGM today, Greens MP Ian
Cohen called on the company to refrain from using their influence to
frustrate community efforts to expand South Australia’s successful
container deposit scheme.
“Coca Cola have donated almost two million dollars to the major
political parties in this country over the last nine years,” said
Upper House Greens MP Ian Cohen.
“What the developer donations scandal has revealed in NSW is that
political donors make donations in order to gain preferential access to
and/or treatment from MPs and Ministers.
“He who pays the piper calls the tune. There should be a moratorium
on all political donations from beverage companies, particularly while a
national review of the viability of a container deposit scheme is
underway.
“Voluntary waste management schemes have consistently failed to
achieve targets for recycling and resource recovery.
CCA’s Chairman David Gonski today told the AGM that the company has
‘engaged a sustainability manager to work with our customers and
we’re gathering ideas from many of our people on ways to reduce waste
and maximise resources’.
“Container deposit is a proven system for minimising waste. If Coke
were serious beyond greenwash, they’d be heeding calls supported by
90% of the community to introduce a cash back scheme for bottles and
cans.
“Self regulation has maintained status quo where recycling rates of
beverage containers have been stagnant for years. Is it a coincidence
that nine years of donations have coincided with nine years of self
regulation and nine years of chain dragging on waste issues?
“Once the company has embraced container deposit, they might like to
look to their sister company in Germany for guidance on how to set up a
refillable system. The German PET Coca Cola bottle on my desk has been
refilled 20 times – now there’s an idea,” said Mr Cohen.
For more information: Ian Cohen 0409 989 466 or Nic Clyde 0417 742 754
