See plastic differently this Christmas
Christmas is often a time of excess, but Coca‑Cola is launching a campaign to inspire people to think twice about throwing away all their empty drinks packaging. It is staggering that two-thirds of plastic bottles that go through every household are still not being recycled.* This festive season, Coca‑Cola has commissioned a limited edition range of exclusive Christmas decorations, designed by cult design duo Basso & Brooke and musician and TV personality Alex James, all made out of recycled plastic to encourage consumers to think differently.
This forms part of the ‘See Plastic Differently Campaign' - a Coke initiative to remind consumers of the benefits of recycling plastic bottles by illustrating that they are not just waste, but have a second life through recycling. The distinctive decorations will be available to consumers on www.cokezone.co.uk from December 9 2008, and with every one ordered, Coca‑Cola will make a donation of £5 to Together, the climate change charity campaign.
This particular campaign is part of the wider ambition by Coca‑Cola to use 25% recycled plastic (rPET) in all its bottles across Europe by 2010. It's a virtuous circle, and an essential part of it is if more people recycle their plastic bottles this Christmas and beyond, the more recycled plastic Coke can put back into its bottles. Currently in the UK there is not enough high quality rPET to be able to put back into the chain and there haven't been enough facilities to convert plastic bottles into rPET, but Coca‑Cola is now a major customer of the newly opened Closed Loop Recycling facility in Dagenham, which is producing the UK's first food-grade recycled plastic for use in drinks bottles.
If every household in England recycled ‘one more thing', the total amount collected for recycling could increase by more than three quarters of a million tonnes and could potentially raise the national recycling rate by up to 3% (source: WRAP) to make it around 38%. To find out more about recycling, consumers should visit www.recyclenow.co.uk.
The designer collaborators are also creating giant Christmas trees with a difference - all made out of recycled plastic. The unique festive structures are a visually intriguing part of the campaign to help consumers look at plastic differently - and realise the potential value of an empty drinks bottle. The Alex James tree will be on display at popular music venue The Roundhouse, for the public to view from December 11 2008 until January 2009.
Liz Lowe, Citizenship Manager of Coca‑Cola Great Britain, comments, "We want to help raise awareness about the very real benefits of recycling and to encourage people to recycle more, so that it just becomes second nature for everyone. Our packaging isn't waste, it's a valuable resource which can be used again and again. These fabulous Christmas decorations are just one way of showing how precious plastic is - and we hope everyone who sees them will want to get hold of them."
Keen farmer, journalist and former Blur band member, Alex James, was invited to work on the project for his green awareness and creativity. Alex has created a number of eye-catching snowflake designs for the Christmas decorations by working up the basic cross section pattern of a vibrating guitar string, to represent harmony and balance. Alex also designed a jolly snowman playing a guitar - fusing his musical background with the festive season.
"The Koch Curve, the basis of the snowflake design is a beautiful bit of mathematical recycling; an endless harmonic loop like a bell that never stops ringing. Max the musical snowman is just a bit of fun, but he will definitely be on top of my tree this year." said Alex James.
Coca‑Cola approached Basso & Brooke, cult UK design duo, for their cutting edge designs and striking prints, seen on trend leaders such as Kate Moss and Jade Jagger. The Basso & Brooke Christmas baubles each portray three bold prints, typical of the designers, in the shape of the iconic Coca‑Cola Contour bottle - perfect to complete any well-dressed tree this Christmas.
"Christmas is such a colourful time of year and we wanted to reflect this through our signature patterns & prints on both the recycled plastic decorations and tree. It is great to be part of a campaign that will hopefully show people what a flexible resource plastic is and encourage them to recycle bottles & packaging" said Bruno Basso from Basso & Brooke.
Consumers can add a touch of designer & celebrity glamour to their home this Christmas while supporting an important environmental campaign. The Alex James and Basso & Brooke limited edition decorations will be exclusively available at www.cokezone.co.uk from 9-19th December for 10 points each. No purchase is necessary, as consumers will be awarded 10 CokeZone points when first registering on the site. For each decoration ordered a donation of £5 will be made to the climate change charity campaign, Together (www.together.com).
David Hall, Campaign Director, Together said: "Coca‑Cola's ambition to introduce recycled plastic into their bottles is good news for the environment. By illustrating the wonderful things that can be made from recycled plastic, 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."
For further information on recycling, please visit www.recyclenow.co.uk
- ENDS-
For press information and interviews with collaborators, please contact:
Emma Cray on 020 7407 7130 / emma.cray@exposure.net" emma.cray@exposure.net or Annalisa Hoadley on 020 7907 7155 / Annalisa@exposure.net" Annalisa@exposure.net.
Interview time with Basso & Brooke & Alex James available on request.
Alex James available for interview Monday 8 December 2008. Images of the baubles will be available w/c 8 December 2008. Images of the trees will be available w/c 8 December 2008.
Notes to Editors:
Once used, each of the designer recycled plastic ‘trees' will be recycled again.
* It is staggering that two-thirds of plastic bottles that go through every household are still not being recycled (Source: Recoup) www.recoup.org.
The recycled plastic ‘trees' and decorations have been manufactured by British company, Remarkable, in Worcestershire. Remarkable was set up by Edward Douglas Miller in 1996 to manufacture products from UK recycled materials. Remarkable has been awarded ‘Invention of the Year', ‘Recycled Product of the Year', ‘Environmental Company of the Year' and ‘Millennium Product' status. Since 1996 the company has grown to 25 employees and has a 30,000 sq ft UK factory. The philosophy at Remarkable is to create recycled items that are well-designed, great quality and a joy to own. As well as possessing sound environmental credentials - all their products are made using only UK recycled materials - Remarkable want people to choose their goods because they like what they are doing; making products that instill a sense of fun and intrigue, and because all their products evoke a feeling of purpose, passion and environmental benefit.
To find out more what ‘Coca‑Cola' is doing this Christmas, visit HYPERLINK "http://www.cokezone.co.uk" www.cokezone.co.uk.
Coke Zone is the innovative rewards programme for Coca‑Cola. Consumers collect points by entering codes on specially-marked packs of Coke, diet Coke and Coke Zero. They can then save up their points and exchange them for must-have gadgets such as iPods and mobile phones; or use them to get entries into prize draws to win once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
Together provides practical steps to make it easier and cheaper for people to tackle climate change in their everyday lives. The campaign is delivered by a unique collaboration between business, government and civil society and facilitated by independent NGO The Climate Group. Since April 2007, Together has helped inspire over 30 million individual climate change actions, saving UK consumers 750,000 tonnes of CO2 and over £140m from household bills. Partners include: B&Q, Barclaycard, British Gas, BSkyB, Coca‑Cola, Marks & Spencer, More Th>n, National Express, O2 and Tesco. Together is also supported by organisations such as the National Trust, Church of England and WWF. For more information go to www.together.com.
Coca‑Cola Great Britain and Coca‑Cola Enterprises are both focused on minimising the environmental impact of their products and operations in GB in three key ways:-
Reducing Energy Use: ‘Coca Cola' manufacturing sites in GB have seen a 16% reduction in energy usage since 2001.Greener journey planning and the use of smaller vehicles for smaller loads has also saved 300,000 road miles per year.
Reducing Water Usage: By using metering systems and using water recovery systems here in GB, ‘Coca‑Cola' has improved its GB water usage ratio by 21% since 2001.
Waste, Packaging & Recycling: ‘Coca‑Cola' has reduced the weight of 500ml PET bottles to just 24 grams, down from 39 grams in 1994, and its iconic glass bottle has been reduced in weight by 20%. Its glass bottles contain approximately 30% recycled glass and aluminium cans contain around 50% recycled aluminium. ‘Coca‑Cola' is encouraging customers to recycle, by placing WRAP-endorsed recycle messages on its products and by running consumer facing recycling schemes such as ‘Talent from Trash' ( HYPERLINK "http://www.talentfromtrash.co.uk/" www.talentfromtrash.co.uk) and Recycling Zone. Over 90% of the waste produced at our manufacturing sites is now recycled, with less than 10% going to Landfill - a 68% reduction since 2002.
The Coca‑Cola Company is the world's largest beverage company, refreshing consumers with more than 450 sparkling and still brands. Along with Coca‑Cola, recognized as the world's most valuable brand, the Company's portfolio includes 12 other billion dollar brands, including Diet Coke, Fanta, Sprite, Coca‑Cola Zero, Glaceau, Powerade and Minute Maid. Globally, we are the No. 1 provider of sparkling beverages, juices and juice drinks and ready-to-drink teas and coffees. Through the world's largest beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the Company's beverages at a rate of 1.5 billion servings a day. With an enduring commitment to building sustainable communities, our Company is focused on initiatives that protect the environment, conserve resources and enhance the economic development of the communities where we operate. For more information about our Company, please visit our website at www.thecoca-colacompany.com.
‘Coca‑Cola', ‘Coke', 'diet Coke', 'Coke Zero' and the design of the ‘Coca‑Cola' Contour Bottle are registered trade marks of The Coca‑Cola Company.
