Interorganizational
Studies - Current Event -Coco-Cola
Enterprises and ECO Plastics Joint Venture, Continuum Recycling
Foodandbeveragepackaging.com.
Foodandbeveragepackaging.com, 05/23/2012. Web. 3 Jul 2012.
Sustainability and
ecological/environmental responsibility are values highly held and embraced by
most major global companies, and in our textbook, they are sometimes called the
"third bottom line"(Dess, Lumpkin, Eisner, McNamara, p.24). Many consumers are more willing to buy from
companies who practice environmental sustainability, and those companies are
also realizing cost efficiencies by investing in environmental sustainability
endeavors. Joint ventures that involve companies who want to increase
sustainability and reduce their environmental footprint are becoming more
common. The importance of these types of joint ventures lies in the reduction
of costs and use of new technologies and facilities to increase their economies
of scope and scale while at the same time reducing any adverse impact on the
environment. Two large global companies have recently contributed financially and
joined together to create a third company that will have a huge impact on the
global environment.
In March 2011, Coca-Cola Entreprises, Ltd.
(CCE) entered into a joint venture with ECO Plastics to build a recycling plant
that would reprocess rPet plastics and
more than double the tonnage of plastic recycled into "food-grade
sustainable packaging" in Great Britain (Coca-Cola Enterprises, 2011,
p.1). It was the first time that a British recycling company had joined up with
the global beverage industry (ECO Plastics, p.1). The intent was to build the recycling plant
and have it up and running by the 2012 Olympics.On May 23, 2012 CCE and ECO announced the official opening of the $24 million (18.7 million Euros) Continuum Recycling (Recycling International, p.1). CCE will co-run the new plant with ECO and plans to "recycle all clear plastic bottles that are disposed of at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games" (Recycling International, p.1). The plant will recycle the plastics and aid in the making of approximately 80 million new Coke bottles (Recycling International, p.1). Before the new facility, CCE had sent about two thirds of its plastic to be reprocessed over to the UK, but it was hard to get the required grade and quality of plastic that CCE wanted for its beverages. CCE is promising to recover 100% of its packaging for recycling by 2020 (Caliendo, p.1). It will do so with the help of ECO Plastics through Continuum Recycling.
The
implications for outcomes are obvious. With Continuum Recycling, CCE and ECO
will position themselves as companies who are willing to make the effort to
invest in building a low-carbon, zero-waste business in the UK, which can be
replicated in other countries as well (Foodandbeveragepacking.com, p.1). They
demonstrate corporate responsibility to the environment and the social aspects
of the industry. This should bring both companies increased sustainability and
competitive advantage and create more value for their stakeholders.
Managers
will need to prepare for the outcomes of this joint venture. CCE, ECO, and
Continuum will need to make sure the overall strategies are clear and understood
so that they don't work against each other and work toward a common goal. They
will also have to make sure that the resources and capabilities of each company
are understood by the others so that they can develop synergies between the
companies and create value for all partners. They have to trust each other and
build up the working relationships that connect them. Managers from other
countries will also have to understand the cultural issues of the country in
which the joint venture is undertaken. For example, the environmental laws of
the UK will have to be understood and aligned to company strategy before
undertaking the recycling venture. Since the London games are only a couple of
weeks away, it will be interesting to see if CCE and ECO can deliver on their
endeavor.
Sources
Cited:
Caliendo,
Heather. "Green Bottles: Coca-Cola and ECO Plastics Joint Recycling
Venture
Opens in the UK." Plasticstoday.com.
Plasticstoday.com, 05/17/2012. Web. 13 Jul
"Coca-Cola and ECO Plastics Claim
Recycling Breakthrough." Recycling International.
Recycling International, 05-17-2012. Web. 2
Jul 2012.
Coca-Cola Enterprises, Ltd.,
. "Coca-Cola Enterprises Joint Venture Set to Step Change Plastics
Recycling in GB." Coca-Cola
Enterprises Ltd.. Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd, 03/07/2011. Web.
13 Jul 2012. <http://www.ecoplasticsltd.com/news-detail.aspx?id=34>
Dess, Gregory D., G.T. Lumpkin, Alan B. Eisner,
and Gerry McNamara. Strategic Management.
New
York: McGray-Hill Irwin, 2012. 24. Print.
"ECO Plastics,2011, A Year In Review." ECO Plastics.
ECO Plastics, 7/3/2012. Web. 3 Jul
Foodandbeveragepackaging.com.
Foodandbeveragepackaging.com, 05/23/2012. Web. 3 Jul
I like the way you ended your blog, because it is hard to imagine CCE and ECO recycling all 100% of coke bottles at the paralympic games. However, if they even come close to that, say 90%, that will still be a large number of coke bottles. I think the companies can make a big difference, and the joint venture should encourage similar companies to pursue similar operations. I used to work at a plastic molding company, and what I'm curious about is the excess that isn't put into manufacturing. Recycling used bottles is of course a huge deal, but if they also recycle the excess plastic that doesn't make it into bottles or packaging than they could probably double the amount of plastic recycled.
ReplyDeleteIn one of the articles that I read, it stated that ECO was already a big recycler of mixed plastics in the UK. I'm not sure if that means that they use the excess plastic that doesn't go into bottles or not. But both Coke and ECO are playing to the global movement for recycling and, I believe, are setting a good example for other companies in other countries. And with plastics having taken over just about everything from glass bottles to some of the metal in cars, the sooner companies around the world follow CCE/ECO's lead, the less plastics will be sitting in landfills or polluting the countryside.
ReplyDeleteIt's impressive that they plan to recover 100% of their packaging by 2020. It's good to see that such a large company is making an effort to reduce waste. I think in the U.S. we have quite a problem with that. We over-package everything.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree that we overpackage everything. It doesn't make sense that it requires a pair of metal sheers to open the plastic packaging of a 5 dollar item. It seems like they put more money in the packaging than the item itself.
ReplyDelete