Overview of The Coca-Cola Company's Effluent Treatment Practices in India
The Role of Effluent in Beverage Production
Effluent is a term commonly used to describe water that has been utilized in the production of beverages, chiefly for the following activities:
Sanitizing equipment and bottling operations;
Sanitizing production facilities; and/or
Clearing residual flavors from filling and mixing equipment used to produce different beverages.
Prior to treatment, effluent typically contains:
Detergents used in the sanitation process; and/or
Flavors and ingredients from products.
Treatment and Disposal Practices to Ensure Effluent Safety
Effluent water is always kept completely separate from production water. Because untreated effluent could potentially contain contaminants, deplete oxygen levels in local water bodies and possibly have a negative impact on aquatic life, it is important to apply rigorous standards and practices to ensure that it has been cleaned before it is discharged.
Coca-Cola facilities throughout the world have two basic options for safely managing effluent. The first is to discharge to a municipal treatment system that fully treats all collected effluent from residences and commercial operations before returning cleaned water to the environment. In such cases, municipalities often require some pre-treatment at the Coca-Cola plant.
In the absence of comprehensive municipal treatment systems, The Coca-Cola Company requires all plants to adopt the second option: full on-site treatment to ensure the effluent is safely cleaned before it is returned to the environment.
Like those used by most municipal systems — and in compliance with all applicable laws and other industry and international standards — The Coca-Cola Company’s effluent treatment processes are activated by the introduction of organic organisms that thrive on the detergents, residual sweeteners and flavors that may be found in the effluent. In a controlled effluent treatment system, the organisms consume these residual ingredients so that clean water can be separated and safely discharged in land and water-based applications. After treated effluent is discharged, much of the residual bio-matter is returned to the treatment system for reuse. Some is released into regulated land disposal sites or compost facilities, and some is safely stored or land-applied on site.
When this treated water is discharged onto land, it is clean enough to support plant life and not impact underlying soils or groundwater. Land-based applications are a natural way to recycle treated water and ensure its safety in a soil/plant system.
The Coca-Cola Company complies with all applicable laws and follows other internal strict protocols in the use of land application to treat effluent and eliminate any risk to humans as a result of its disposal. These include:
Securing effluent disposal sites from public access;
Establishing appropriate irrigation buffers to minimize drift;
Eliminating run-off and deep percolation;
Maintaining appropriate cropping restrictions; and
Implementing appropriate hygiene practices for everyone working at the site.
When effluent is released to surface water bodies, it is cleaned to meet all applicable legal requirements and The Coca-Cola Company’s own stringent standards. To ensure the safety of people and the environment, The Company demonstrates that treated effluent meets applicable standards consistently by:
Completing rigorous laboratory analyses for 20 parameters plus others that may be required by local laws; and
Completing bioassays to demonstrate the effluent is protective of aquatic life and/or using fish habitats (aquariums or ponds) to publicly show the cleanliness of the water.
Through our holistic water stewardship practices in India, The Coca-Cola Company also:
Monitors consumption, utilization and disposal of effluent monthly.
Monitors water levels and water quality at appropriate intervals.
Monitors soil/land quality at appropriate levels in the local areas of land application.
Measuring Effluent Flow
The Coca-Cola Company tracks the volume of effluent treated and discharged at all plants. The methods for such measurements vary. While existing flow measurement practices are in compliance with local laws and permit conditions, by 3Q 2008 we will install additional equipment where needed to ensure accurate and consistent measurement of land-application hydraulic flows.
Our Standards
The Coca-Cola Company’s attention to effluent treatment begins long before our plants are even built. When considering locations, our site development teams discuss water and effluent disposal requirements with appropriate government officials to ensure that effluent can be treated and disposed of in accordance with standards set by the Company and by the local municipality.
The Coca-Cola Company and its bottlers always comply with all applicable laws for the treatment of effluent; we also comply with our own global standards. This matters because in some communities, our standards may be more stringent than local standards. In all cases, however, we comply with the strictest standard that can be applied.
An independent global audit team monitors the overall compliance process, tracking any corrective actions that may be called for at individual plants.
