4 ms·
There’s some questions you have to ask about potential courses of action. Because what a company can do is restricted to what it is economically viable for them
by jamesrcole 7y ago
There’s some questions you have to ask about potential courses of action. Because what a company can do is restricted to what it is economically viable for them to do. Actions that are not economically viable would put them out of business. They would make their product go up in cost to a large enough degree that people wouldn’t purchase their products. And you can’t just wave this issue away by pointing out that the company is very wealthy.
So we have to ask whether it is economically viable to, say, collect the packaging. I imagine that country-wide programs to do this would be very expensive.
Of the ones you mention, I imagine that research is the most likely to be viable (keep in mind it’s not just the research but also finding a material that is economically viable to produce) But how do you know they aren’t already doing that?
- rini17 7y agoI do know Coca-Cola was lobbying against mandatory returning of bottles against deposit in my country (Slovakia). It was already implemented in the 90s and no major increase of cost happened, but they didn't like it anyway. It's just usual corporate penny-pinching (and in your case, probably FUD). In Germany collection of bottles has been implemented all the time and it is definitely not "very expensive". In Slovakia it is planned to start again since next year or so.
- jamesrcole 7y agoWe were talking about the company selling the products being responsible for collecting the products, not for whether there were voluntary collection schemes.
- rini17 7y agoNo, about what the company was accountable for.
- jamesrcole 7y agoThe quote in question that I was responding to was “They [Coca-Cola] can collect the packaging.”
- RandomInteger4 7y agoWhat is "mandatory returning of bottles against deposit"?
- rini17 7y agohttps://www.greenmax-machine.com/Deposit-Collection-System-In-Germany-Promotes-Plastic-Bottle-Recycling.html https://www.greenmax-machine.com/Deposit-Collection-System-I...
- hcarvalhoalves 7y agoIf not selling in plastic bottles puts them out of the business, their business only survives externalising costs (= leaving plastic waste to someone else to figure out), and they should be out of business. In the 80's and 90's, where I live, Coca-Cola used to sell in returnable glass bottles, you would drop it at the mini market and buy a filled one, and buying one without returning another bottle cost a lot more, so people had incentive to store empty bottles and return it back. It worked just fine. They didn't go broke. I call BS that it's not economic viable.