Dear Coca Cola...

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Dear Coca Cola,

You are such a source of childhood nostalgia for me. Every time I crack open a can of coke I think of being just a wee child, spending time with my grandma. That woman used to give us coke when we stayed home from school and explained to my frustrated mother that it helps with stomach aches.

Upon researching your company, I have become disheartened. After world water day and numerous water documentaries that were playing around earth day (my dad surprisingly pulled me away from studying to watch one) I’ve been patrolling water use aggressively. Coca Cola is failing in this sense… not just like a fluke “one time I was out late partying and got a 47% on a bio quiz” but a “seemed like a good idea to play vidja games for a week straight and skip all my midterms” fail. Boasting that they use 2.43L per 1L of water, meaning 1.43L is waste water or used for manufacturing processes- not even reaching a bottle to be distributed for insane prices after being shipped across the country and then discarded, probably incorrectly and thrown into a garbage dump. *Sigh*

Furthermore, Coca Cola is guilty of manufacturing its products with Bisphenol-A contaminated linings. For those of you that weren’t forced to take chemistry, BPA has been in the media spotlight as a potential toxin with numerous health effects including cancers, reproductive damage, thyroid dysfunction, neurological issues as well as obesity. The media has in recent years focused on the BPA found in water bottles that was immediately changed by water bottle producers. Although one in four shareholders have voted in support of a change in Coca Cola’s manufacturing practices, they refuse the effects are a reality.

Coca Cola, I thought we had something special. But after all this time, I find out you are just trying to murder me slowly.

-merissa

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