User:Itzmaxyang/The Coca-Cola Company

Agriculture 4.0: Broadening responsible innovation in an era of smart ... (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2023, from https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/86622/1/fsufs-02-00087.pdf

Article Draft
Lead: Coca-Cola uses vast amounts of high fructose corn syrup to produce their sugary drinks. The beverage company also contributes to large amounts of pollution as their bottling partner uses plastic packaging.

Article body: Coca-Cola using high fructose corn syrup has a lower sustainability compared to producing sugary dinks with sugar cane. High fructose corn syrup is carbon intensive due to the substantial amounts of fossil fuels required to power heavy machinery. Turning corn into high fructose corn syrup is an energy intensive process requiring large amounts of carbon to be expended especially during corn growth. Burning fossil fuels releases Co2 and CH4 which is the main source of energy for producing high fructose corn syrup. The environmental impact of corn production can be attributed to 3 primary effects of field emissions, irrigation and grain decay.

Although Coca-Cola does not produce the bottles themselves and they stated that they have no plans on slowing down plastic bottle usage as consumers prefer the plastic bottles that "reseal and are lightweight". They also contribute to plastic waste producing up to 3 million tons of plastic packaging a year including over 110 billion plastic bottles. The company has been referenced as "the worst plastic polluter in the world" pumping out 200,000 plastic bottles a minute. Problems have also arose in places such as Samoa where Coca-Cola switched away from reusable glass bottles to one time use plastic bottles. Residents of Samoa have seen an increase in plastic pollution since this switch has been made. Alternatives to plastic such as aluminum have also been overlooked with Coca-Cola releasing a new plastic bottle slightly bigger than a can size.

Coca-Cola has also been under fire for depleting water sources through their high water usages. Local villagers have testified that Coca-Cola's entry in Kaladera Rajasthan intensified lower water sources. Documents from the government's water ministry reveal water levels remained stable from 1995 until 2000, when the Coca-Cola was first operational. Water levels then dropped by almost 10 meter's during the next five years. Other communities in India that are located around Coca-Cola's bottling plants are experiencing water shortages as well as environmental damage taking heavy tolls on harvests as well as drying up wells.

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3.Sierra Club. (2022, December 14). Coca-Cola's Plastic Pollution Problem. Sierra Club. Retrieved March 27, 2023, from https://www.sierraclub.org/michigan/blog/2022/12/coca-cola-s-plastic-pollution-problem .[https://www.sierraclub.org/michigan/blog/2022/12/coca-cola-s-plastic-pollution-problem#:~:text=Coca%2DCola%20has%20been%20declared,Coca%2DCola%20%7C%20The%20Guardian. https://www.sierraclub.org/michigan/blog/2022/12/coca-cola-s-plastic-pollution-problem#:~:text=Coca%2DCola%20has%20been%20declared,Coca%2DCola%20%7C%20The%20Guardian.]

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