The Multi-Stakeholder Recovery Project

In 2001, a multi-stakeholder group called Businesses and Environmentalists Allied for Recycling (BEAR) convinced Coca-Cola Co. to participate in a study called Multi-Stakeholder Recovery Project.

The study grew out of a stated desire by environmental groups and Coca-Cola to advance the issue of container recovery. BEAR is a unique alliance of businesses, recyclers and environmentalists working to maximize the recycling of beverage containers. BEAR's goal is to double the national recycling rate of beverage containers to 80 percent.

As You Sow praised the company for participating in the MSRP. Its willingness to openly engage these stakeholders was admirable and set its apart from and ahead of its competitors.

In January 2002, the MSRP group released a new analysis of the economics of beverage container recycling system that concluded that deposit systems result in the highest level of recovery but also have the highest gross costs. California's container redemption law has a redemption rate of 54% and among the lowest costs identified, according to the report. The data seemed to suggest that deposit systems are much more cost effective than Coke and other bottle bill opponents had suggested. Click here for a link to the full text of the report.

Coke was committed to participating in a second phase of the project that would have involved setting container recovery goals but backed out of the project in February 2002. We conveyed our strong disappointment to the company over its decision to back out of the process. We believe Coke backed out because of internal company debates about whether to continue to work directly with environmental groups on the container recovery issue. This action continues to raise questions about the seriousness of commitment by Coke management to address the container recovery issue.

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