Coca-Cola Beverages Florida, LLC (Coke Florida) honours the global observance of Earth Day 2024 (April 22) with activities scheduled throughout its 18-territory market that concentrate on community environmental well-being. The company’s employees logged over 300 volunteer hours, indicating a continuing dedication and responsibility to the environment.
As the local Coca-Cola bottler, Coke Florida is proud to give back to our local communities while prioritizing sustainability capabilities within our business. During April, which also includes global volunteer month, we are extremely excited to make an impact on the movement through volunteerism not just on Earth Day, but every day.
John Mitchell, Sustainability Manager, Coke Florida
Coke Florida, the family-owned Coca-Cola bottler that serves 47 Florida counties from Jacksonville to the Keys, stresses sustainability in its operations and community participation year-round, with four key priority areas: recycling, water stewardship, resilience, and litter and waste reduction.
Coke Florida collaborated with ecologically aware groups throughout April, including Keep Florida Beautiful affiliates, Busch Gardens®, Tampa Bay, and Miami-Dade County. Coke Florida associates were able to volunteer their time by supporting educational seminars and performing community cleanups of green spaces and shorelines, such as Trash Bash in Brevard County, St. John’s River Clean Up, Sebring High School Agricultural Department’s orange grove removal and blueberry planting, and the City of Ocala Mayor’s Earth Day Ocala, resulting in the collection of thousands of pounds of trash statewide.
Busch Gardens® Tampa Bay worked with Coke Florida for its inaugural Conservation Weekend on April 19-21. The partners planned an interactive sequence of activities throughout the three-day event to engage and educate park visitors. The kids loved painting discarded Coke Florida syrup drums, which will be utilized as rain barrels throughout the park to collect rainfall and reduce stormwater runoff. Visitors of all ages got the opportunity to try novel recycling methods, such as Reverse Vending Machine (RVM) technology. Reverse vending allows customers to participate in recycling by dropping empty bottles and cans into the device, which crushes and sorts them by type. Coke Florida then gathers, processes, and recycles the materials to create new beverage packaging. Participation in Busch Gardens’ Conservation Weekend provides another opportunity to demonstrate how regular conversation-minded habits may benefit the environment.
Coke Florida’s Earth Day community participation will climax with support for the Million Trees Miami-Dade County campaign. The corporation invested in planting approximately 75 ten-foot native and Florida-friendly trees at Hialaeh’s North Pointe Community Center, which is part of the Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation, and Open Spaces Department. On Friday, April 26th, Coke Florida associates and volunteers will plant the trees, along with native plants and beautifying elements, to finish the park’s tree canopy project. Million Trees Miami-Dade County is on a mission to establish and maintain a 30% tree canopy across Miami-Dade County to improve the area’s ecological resiliency.
