• news
  • TUESDAY JUNE 5 2007 4:00 PM

Coca-Cola Plans to Conserve Water

Submitted by Aaron_Lariviere

Edited by erin_broadley

Tags: Coca-cola, Coke, water, sugar, conservation



There’s something slightly weird about the idea of Coca-Cola conserving water. Like if KFC "went humane" and decided to conserve chickens. How do you cut back on your number one ingredient?

It seems when Coca-Cola manufactures Coke, Sprite and former Nazi super-soda Fanta, they use 2.5 liters of water per liter of soda. Multiply that by however many millions of liters we all suck down each year and that’s a good amount of H2O. But here’s the kicker: in addition to the comparatively paltry amount used in the physical production, another 175 to 250 liters of water is needed to grow the sugar that goes into just one liter of soda-pop. Fuck. Jason Clay, a World Wildlife Foundation researcher, put it simply:

They really need to get a handle on sugar.


To offset the mass consumption of water, Coke has vowed to fund a $20 million water conservation project with the World Wildlife Foundation with the aim of protecting and conserving seven major rivers around the world. The CEO of Coca-Cola, E. Neville Isdell, said today at a news conference:

Essentially the pledge is to return every, every drop we use back to nature. If the communities around ... our bottling plants do not flourish and are not sustainable, our business will not be sustainable in the future.


I won’t argue with their impregnable corporate logic, but I’m left wondering if this isn’t all a complex ploy to trick our environmental-friendly minds into switching to (sugarless) Coke Zero for some fiendish but-as-yet-unknown reason. World domination, perhaps? Aspartame induced sterility ala Children of Men? Go ahead, world… surrender your will and your dollar to the no-carb taste sensation, after all, Coke does make some cute commercials:



Aaron Lariviere secretly wishes the world had more diabolical plots so that he could discover one on his own, and stop pulling them out of his ass.

  • PERMALINK
  • PRINT
  • Digg This
  • Email To A Friend
 

Previous

PAGE: 

1 | 2 | 3

Next

Comments
Necia

Necia

San Francisco, CA
August 2005

JUN 05, 2007 05:08 PM

I wonder if aspartame is cheaper than sugar?

PaulNikon

PaulNikon

Melbourne, FL
February 2003

JUN 05, 2007 05:11 PM

Coke is it.

ReverseEngineer

ReverseEngineer

Chicago, IL
July 2006

JUN 05, 2007 05:29 PM

yourfashionwar said:

_DictionaryGirl_ said:

Cash said:
Or...you know....don't drink soda.



I... I don't understand! frown



seriously, eff that.



it's not nearly as hard as it sounds...
water is good
juice is good

Zamuzel

Zamuzel

United Kingdom
September 2006

JUN 05, 2007 05:29 PM

Yes they're going to start bottling the tears of the children from the country's that they rape.

FearTheReaper

FearTheReaper

NEWSWIRE

I'm lost

JUN 05, 2007 05:31 PM

ReverseEngineer said:

yourfashionwar said:

_DictionaryGirl_ said:

Cash said:
Or...you know....don't drink soda.



I... I don't understand! frown



seriously, eff that.



it's not nearly as hard as it sounds...
water is good
juice is good



These two think they are better than us. Water is for losers. Same goes for juice.

mamet

mamet

Charleston, SC
March 2005

JUN 05, 2007 05:33 PM

ReverseEngineer said:

yourfashionwar said:

_DictionaryGirl_ said:

Cash said:
Or...you know....don't drink soda.



I... I don't understand! frown



seriously, eff that.



it's not nearly as hard as it sounds...
water is good
juice is good



So is Diet Coke. And a world without it is a world I don't want.

Aaron_Lariviere

Aaron_Lariviere

Los Angeles, CA
May 2007

JUN 05, 2007 06:00 PM

I've already fallen victim to the Coke Zero conspiracy, I'll admit it. Hell, it tastes like real Coke!

SiameseGun

SiameseGun

Orlando, FL
September 2005

JUN 05, 2007 06:15 PM

Check out www.newstarget.com/004416.html. This goes for ALL sodas, including diets and that zero nonsense. Syrup is syrup, no matter what pretty label you put on it. I just love it when people complain about their weight and health while sucking down one Diet Pepsi after another. There's nothing at all wrong with at least 8 tall glasses of water a day. It'll give you more energy when you rip into that Snickers bar after a good smoke. And it'll keep you from being thirsty again 5 seconds later, not to mention it's a lot less than 175 to 250 liters (for all you fellow Americans not familiar with the metric system, that's about 46 to 66 gallons). eeek

Cash

Cash

USA
OLD SKOOL

JUN 05, 2007 06:34 PM

_DictionaryGirl_ said:

Cash said:
Or...you know....don't drink soda.



I... I don't understand! frown



I know, I know....I was a hard-core user for years. I'm talking, like...easily a 6-pack of Diet Coke a day.

Now...I only have the odd soda here and there when I go out to eat. I never buy it anymore.

It was easier for me to quit smoking than it was to give up soda.

dingoes8

dingoes8

Milwaukee, WI
March 2004

JUN 05, 2007 06:42 PM

I love this. They spend $20 million on funding research, then probably $200 million in marketing to let everyone know they're doing the research.

SnowgodCCR

SnowgodCCR

Derry, NH
November 2006

JUN 05, 2007 06:48 PM

Necia said:
I wonder if aspartame is cheaper than sugar?



Not at all...quite the opposite actually, which just shows how wide the profit margin is on this garbage.

Food costs aside, I trust plants more than I trust chemists.

herbancowboy

herbancowboy

Houston, TX
June 2004

JUN 05, 2007 06:55 PM

Well, there's always Dasani.

FearTheReaper said:
Coke sees the writing on the wall. Water is the new gold. It's going to cost a fortune in the near future, that is way large companies are buying up water sources around the world. It is just a business decision made to look like an environmental one.



Yup. I recall a BBC report from about five years ago which stated that Turkey was converting oil tankers to carry water--which quite simply illustrates that water is becoming more valuable than oil.

Aaron_Lariviere

Aaron_Lariviere

Los Angeles, CA
May 2007

JUN 05, 2007 07:28 PM

CherryCoke said:
So how exactly are they conserving water?
Are they cutting back on the amount of sugar/water going into the product, or are they just giving money to the WWF?



None of the articles I saw really went into detail... I'm not clear if they're just giving the cash to the WWF or developing a specific program with them for to preserve 7 rivers around the world, probably something in between. The Coke press release also said that they're urging sugar producers to "conserve water", but I doubt they're doing much more than saying it.

CherryCoke

CherryCoke

Derry, NH
May 2007

JUN 05, 2007 08:43 PM

Aaron_Lariviere said:

CherryCoke said:
So how exactly are they conserving water?
Are they cutting back on the amount of sugar/water going into the product, or are they just giving money to the WWF?



None of the articles I saw really went into detail... I'm not clear if they're just giving the cash to the WWF or developing a specific program with them for to preserve 7 rivers around the world, probably something in between. The Coke press release also said that they're urging sugar producers to "conserve water", but I doubt they're doing much more than saying it.


That's what I figured.
They're probably just trying to make themselves look good in the eyes of the public.

herbancowboy

herbancowboy

Houston, TX
June 2004

JUN 05, 2007 09:16 PM

CherryCoke said:
They're probably just trying to make themselves look good in the eyes of the public.



Yeah, greenwashing seems to be the topic of the day. (The same article was on truthout.)

Previous

PAGE: 

1 | 2 | 3

Next

featured interviews