Recycling our own waste
We've been working hard to minimise waste from our seven manufacturing sites in Great Britain. For many years we've set progressive targets for recycling and reducing the amount of waste we send to landfill, making big investments in recycling at all of our sites.
In 2007 and 2008, this work continued and we met our targets. As a result:
- Nearly 97% of waste at our manufacturing sites is now recycled or recovered
- Only 3% goes to landfill - a 92% reduction since 2002
We are very proud of our achievements, but we think we can do even better. Our goal is now to recycle all of our waste, sending none to landfill at all. Read more about how we plan to achieve this target.
The journey to zero landfill
As the first step in our plans to recycle all of our manufacturing waste, CCE aims to completely eliminate waste to landfill at our East Kilbride site by the end of 2011. We're planning to achieve this by further investing in the recycling facilities on site, and through our partnership with waste contractors Viridor Waste Management.
During 2009, we're planning to transfer the waste management at all of our manufacturing sites to Viridor. We'll then continue to work closely with them to find more opportunities to reduce waste.
As well as reducing our environmental impact, good recycling practices make good business sense. The investments we've made in improving our waste management facilities are also good for our bottom line.
We welcome and appreciate the substantial investments, efforts and commitment being made by Coca-Cola on recycling and wider sustainability issues. The Scottish Government aspires to Scotland becoming a Zero Waste society and it is encouraging to see a global name like Coca-Cola taking active long-term measures to tackle the problem of waste and move forward on recycling.
Richard Lochhead, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, Scottish Parliament.
