Green Coke

Looks like Coke is emulating Patagonia's success at eliminating millions of soda bottles from the trash heap by creating its own line of clothing made from recycled bottles. (This is also the second time in two months that we've seen Wal-mart shoppers being targeted in a "Green" campaign.)

From Brandweek.com:

Coke Launches Clothing Line Made from Plastic Bottles
April 09, 2008

By Kenneth Hein

Forget polyester and rayon, the new hot fabric will be recycled plastic bottles if Coca-Cola has its way.

Coke is attempting to turn a negative into a positive. Saddled with complaints from environmentalists that its plastic bottles are clogging up landfills, the cola giant has come up with a unique solution: turning recycled bottles into "Drink 2 Wear" apparel.

This week, T-shirts that read, "Make your plastic fantastic" and "Rehash your trash" will appear at nearly 400 Wal-Mart stores as well as at Walmart.com. The shirts are retailing for about $7.50.

"These fun T-shirts merge trend with consciousness, reminding shoppers that small steps like recycling a few bottles can go a long way towards helping preserve our environment," said Stuart Kronauge, vp-marketing at Coca-Cola North America, in a statement. "If the 200 million Wal-Mart shoppers in the U.S. purchase these shirts, they will help us reuse and divert more than 700 million bottles from the waste stream."

TV, radio and print ads from Wal-Mart's agency, the Martin Agency, Richmond, Va., tout the availability of T-shirts.

Coke also recently introduced a line of rPet merchandise that includes T-shirts, tote bags, caps, purses and notebooks made from plastic bottles.

"It's a great use of recycled materials," said Ted Wright, managing partner of Fizz, a word of mouth beverage marketing company in Atlanta. "It's a lot of fun for Coca-Cola to extend their brand and provide interesting thought leadership when it comes to green."

Coke is far from alone in terms of debuting "green" products. Last year, there were 328 new environmentally-friendly products launched, per the Mintel Global New Products Database. This was up 200% from the year prior. In 2002, only five “green” products were unveiled.

Mintel, Chicago, also found nearly 200 million Americans are now actively purchasing green products.

Coke's overall goal is to recycle or reuse 100% of the bottles and cans in the U.S. marketplace. It claims to have spent $60 million on recycling programs. The Atlanta-based company has also reduced the amount of plastic used for Dasani bottles by 30%. Twenty-ounce contour bottles plastic usage was reduced by 5%.

"You’re never going to get real 'Greenies' to love Coca-Cola for a number of reasons," said Wright. "But, for the other 99.9% of the population, we’d like to see the brands we care about taking the right position in doing what they can for the environment."