Massachusetts Town Struggles with Coca- Cola’s waste
Coke’s fruit juices are produced in Northampton. To expand production, Coke increased the operation capacity of the plant. Economically, Coke successfully created 100 new jobs. Contrarily, Coke failed to treat the extra wastes and affected the working environment and conditions of workers. Northampton is planning to reduce extra wastes by 23 % through increasing waste water processing rate. Problem is, this plan has not been confirmed by Coke’s headquarters yet due to the high costs.
Before the expansion, Coke probably had to make a trade off between companies’ benefit and environmental pollution. Coke should have foreseen the problem of extra sugar wastes as they are experienced beverage makers. They acted irresponsibly for lacking a plan to process the extra wastes which led to threatening the environment and community’s health. Since waste isn’t treated as fast as before and requires more labor for clearance, bacteria from high sugar effluent can spread quickly to worsen environmental pollution from other plant wastes. Northampton workers are working overtime to transport the waste to another dump site. Coke should consider the Stakeholder Theory so the employees’ and community’s health would not be put into jeopardy. Coke could have created a back up plan that collaborates with the community to ensure successful waste clearance.
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