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Coca-Cola's "Give it Back" Green Initiative

By Rain Noe - May 18, 2011

in Design Business | Sustainable Design

Coca-Cola has launched a new green initiative called the Give it Back rack, a POP display made from recycled Coke packaging. The idea behind the cardboard shelving unit is that retailers are asked to return them to Coca-Cola at the end of their useful life, at which point they're recycled.

If we look past the marketing spin—all POP displays made from cardboard packaging are recycleable, so that's not new—what we do see and like is that Coke has chosen to design the units with areas of exposed cardboard, including unfinished edges, drawing attention to the humble material itself. We applaud this decision because it is somewhat risky; it can either be perceived as cheap and shoddy or, we hope, will lead the viewer to conclude that if corrugated cardboard is good enough for a corporate giant like Coke, it has perfect validity as a structural material.

Another reason this is an important move made by Coke is that it has the potential to spur competitors to devise their own recycleable initiatives, sparking a sort of green arms race that will shame the '80s rocker cola wars. And best of all, Coke claims the corrugated cardboard design is just "the first in a family of recyclable displays that is coming from Coca-Cola, including a rack made entirely of recycled PET plastic."

You can see video of Bruce Karas, Coca-Cola Director of Sustainability & Environment, discussing the initiative here.

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Chris Livaudais

13 years ago

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While I agree that there is a definite problem with the trash that is produced after the Coke product itself is consumed, I feel that this project focuses on one aspect of their product/display lifecycle that they can control and I commend them for taking that responsibility. Post-consumer trash that ends up on the side of the road is a lack of respect for our environment by the individual, not Coca-Cola.
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Ricardo

13 years ago

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Probably the most detrimental aspect of the company is probably the manufacturing of coke itself, which uses tons of water, POP is the least of their worries environmentally... Its an excellent POP design, too bad its stained by the companys devious communication purpose.
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Jeff

13 years ago

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It's not really their POP displays that are the problem. When driving down the highway or surveying a landfill, you don't tend to see many Coke displays. What you do see are the plastic bottles. Make a nice long lasting POP display out of plastic and your bottles out of cardboard.
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Dan

13 years ago

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I guess this is a positive thing but it's still ridiculous that they are selling bottled water in these shelves if they are trying to be so environmentally friendly. Water is not a product
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