Coca-Cola Cleans Up Society of Environmental Journalists Annual Conference

The Coca-Cola Company, Atlanta, and its non-profit partners helped divert recyclables from the waste stream at the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEF) annual conference in Baltimore last week as part of the company’s continuing effort to raise awareness of away-from-home recycling issues.

Along with the National Association of Service and Conservation Corps, Baltimore’s Civic Works and the Montgomery County Conservation Corps, The Coca-Cola Company worked with conference organizers to place bins throughout the conference area that allowed participants to separate recyclables from trash at the source. The recycled material included PET and glass bottles, paper and corrugated cardboard. The City of Baltimore recycling department collected the material at no charge.

Coca-Cola Environmental Manager Scott Vitters notes that, in addition to adding to the recycling collection stream, the effort helped raise awareness and spark some potentially beneficial alliances. “The recycling effort at the SEJ conference showed that community groups together with local businesses and waste haulers holds a lot of promise for launching or strengthening away-from-home recycling programs,” he says.

John Ciekot, projects director for Civic Works, a Baltimore-based youth service corps, agrees. “Prior to this weekend, the hotel, the city and the waste hauler had never had an opportunity to sit down and consider ways that they might work together to cut costs, create jobs and do something good for the community by separating out recyclables. Though a lot of work needs to be done to get there, this effort could conceivably lead to a volunteer collection regime for all of Baltimore’s hotels.” Officials for the Baltimore Wyndham Hotel, where the conference was held, confirm that the hotel is now considering making trash separation part of its regular operation.

Darryl Foster, projects director for Montgomery County Conservation Corps, notes that participation in efforts like the SEJ recycling program have benefits beyond the environment. “Conservation Corps are all about instilling the ethics of conservation, good work habits and community pride in young people. By engaging our corps members in activities like these, we’re giving them a stake in issues that are important to their communities, and to their lives.”

Sally Prouty, president of the National Association of Service and Conservation Corps (NASCC), adds that the Corps movement relies on these types of partnerships to  keep serving young people and communities. “The more than 100 state and local conservation corps across the country count on business partners like The Coca-Cola Company to help provide the resources that empower the young people who participate in our programs to succeed. We were glad to be able to facilitate the SEJ collection program, both for the benefits it brings to the community and to our corps members.”