■ In January, Coca-Cola and United Resource Recovery Corp. (URRC) joined government leaders and environmental experts at the grand opening of the world’s largest plastic bottle-to-bottle recycling plant. Coca-Cola’s goal is to recycle and reuse 100% of its bottles and cans in the US. When fully operational, the recycling plant will produce approximately 100 million pounds of food-grade recycled PET each year—the equivalent of nearly 2 billion 20-oz Coca-Cola bottles. Over the next 10 years, the plant will prevent the release of 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions—the equivalent of removing 215,000 cars from the road. In addition to environmental benefits, the 30-acre Spartanburg, SC, plant has created 100 new jobs. At the event, Coca-Cola announced the launch of a multimillion-dollar marketing effort supporting recycling called “Give it Back.”
■ Dell announced that the company will reduce its desktop and laptop packaging by 10% over the next four years, a move Dell says will save 20 million pounds of packaging materials and more than $8 million. In addition, Dell says it will increase the amount of sustainable content in its cushioning and corrugate packaging by 40% and ensure that 75% of its packaging components are curbside-recyclable by 2012.
