Coca-Cola: Helping the Environment by Using Plastic

Running an international giant like Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) is a complex affair that involves making a lot of trade-offs. For a long time, the environment and the company's effect on it weren't part of the equation at all, but increasingly that's changing.

However, creating a cleaner world isn't as easy as it may at first seem, and the obvious answers sometimes aren't so obvious, which is why Coca-Cola is sticking with plastic while it works to get green.

Some environmental groups estimate that there are over 50 trillion microscopic plastic particles in the world's oceans. That's roughly 269,000 tons of plastic. But plastic isn't just microscopic -- plastic waste also collects in huge ocean swirls. There's one called the Great Pacific garbage patch and it has its own Wikipedia page. Clearly plastic is an environmental nightmare, given that it's usually made from oil and can last hundreds of years, by some estimates, depending on the type.   

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Source Fool.com