Coca-Cola campaign gets a thirst for sustainability

From Wednesday, people in Wuliqiao Subdistrict can use old plastic bottles to trade for Coca-Cola drinks in a one-year community campaign to promote a sustainable lifestyle. The campaign, titled “World Without Waste @ Sustainable Communities,” kicked off at the Bridge 8 Creative Park on Wednesday morning with an exhibition showing how Coca-Cola gives recycled plastics a new lease of life. “The Amazing Bottle” exhibition displays bags and clothes made from recycled bottles, turning the traditional view that recycled plastics are processed for industrial use on its head. “I hadn’t thought that Coca-Cola bottles could turn into clothes,” said Liu Jianjun, director of the Contemporary China Research Center at Fudan University. Plastics, especially those safe to use in food packaging, should be kept in the rightful place in the recycling loop, said Zhang Jiantao, vice president and CXO of Coca-Cola’s China, South Korea and Mongolia business. He suggested improving recyclability of high-end plastics. “What I wear today, from my suits to my shoes, are all made from discarded plastics,” he said.

Ti Gong

By cross-border cooperation, Coca-Cola hopes to explore how to better recycle and reuse discarded plastics in the communities. “Coca-Cola is encoded with sustainable innovative DNA. We hope to give so-called ‘waste’ a new lease of life and turn to something useful and beautiful in communities,” Zhang said.

A mini workshop making personalized Coca-Cola cans has become a hotspot at the scene. People were lining up with old plastic bottles to trade for Coca-Cola drinks, and they could have any word they wanted engraved on the cans. Ten bottles can be traded for one can of Coca-Cola. Local resident Xu Shanshan had her two sons’ names, Xu Ziren and Xu Zixiong, engraved on the can. “I will show them the can when I return home,” she said.

“I hope they grow awareness of environmental protection from childhood.” Xu said her family would collect old plastic bottles and ask a recycler to take them from her doorstep.

Another resident, Zhou rongju, 75, said her family has been strictly following garbage-sorting standards for years, and she is a neighborhood volunteer to promote garbage sorting. “We are used to sorting garbage. Especially, discarded plastics, expired medicines and electronic scraps should be classified,” she said. “For years, the government has made a great effort to promote garbage sorting. It has worked. A very good thing is that children are educated to sort garbage in schools.”

The campaign will last for a year. After being cleaned and sorted by volunteers, recycled bottles will be processed in factories to embrace a second life, such as beach umbrellas or rain sheds put in public venues across the subdistrict. A variety of activities, including exhibitions and lectures, are set to be held to promote a sustainable lifestyle among residents.

The campaign was guided by the Information Office of Shanghai Municipality, organized by Shanghai Daily, Coca-Cola China and Wuliqiao Subdistrict, and supported by Contemporary China Research Center at Fudan University.

Ruan Jun, deputy secretary of the Party working committee of the subdistrict, said local residents have been doing great in garbage sorting, and the cooperation with Coca-Cola gives them a better understanding of a sustainable lifestyle. “The idea to turn recycled plastics to creative products will win people’s hearts as they are willing to accept new things,” he said. “From Wuliqiao, I hope it can soon expand to other subdistricts.”

Professor Liu said the cooperation between communities and multinational companies could bring new dimensions to grassroots neighborhoods, and form new-style international communities.