Last Wednesday, Coca-Cola showcased their new PlantBottle. This new PlantBottle is still made from plastic, however instead of the plastic being derived from petroleum it’s derived strictly from sugar cane. This new bottle have reduced the Coca-Cola companies’ carbon emission by an estimated 319,000 metric ton. By 2020, Coca-Cola plans on exclusively making all their bottles by using this green packaging method. Coca-Cola hopes to motivate other consumer packaged goods industry to shy away from non-renewable fossil fuels and used more renewable plant-based alternatives.
In my opinion, applauded what Coca-Cola is doing to help improve the environment. With Coca-Cola being such a big name brand, I hope they are successful and getting more name brand organization to follow suit. Some companies such as, Ford, Heinz, Nike, Procter & Gamble, Busch Gardens and SeaWorld have already started using PlantBottle for some of their products. Ford Motor Company started using PlantBottle packaging in the fabric interior of its Fusion Energi hybrid sedan. Busch Gardens and SeaWorld are using the PlantBottle packaging for their recyclable plastic cups. Heinz, on the other hand have been using PlantBottle technology for their ketchup bottles since 2011. The PlantBottle Packaging Innovation Platform hopes that by getting different companies to use their technology they can demonstrate that their technology can be used across different companies’ spectrums; such as cars, carpet, and clothing. By getting different companies to use this technology they hope to help lighten the footprint on the planet. PlantBottle is taking the first step to improve the environment on an industry base level.

This technology is overall amazing. I hope that other name brand companies continue to follow suit. If more organization continue to support renewable technologies, I believe we can improve the environment while also lowering our carbon footprint. I think this would be a great technology for universities, schools, and hotels to adopt in their classrooms/ hotel rooms as well.

Earlier this year in an attempt to prevent the Zika virus from having a strong foothold in South Carolina, a county in South Carolina sprayed pesticide. This resulted in the massacre of millions of honeybees. One of the bee farms affected by this massacre was a farm in Summerville, South Carolina. In this farm, a total of 46 hives were destroyed, and 2.5 million bees were murdered. Last month my sorority sisters and I volunteered at MUSC: Urban Farms. While on the farm, I got the opportunity to learn about the huge impact bee have not only on our agriculture, but our society as well. Honeybees are considered nature’s best pollinators. They are responsible for pollinating some of South Carolina’s best crops such as, almonds, blueberries, apples, asparagus, and broccoli. With recent mass decline of honeybees, it is projected that South Carolina will experience a drop in fresh agriculture production in those products. Also while volunteering at the Urban Farm, I learned why bee preservation is so important for our environment. Honeybees are responsible for the estimated cross-pollination of 30% of the world’s food crops and 90% of wild plant growth. While at MUSC Urban Farms they also spoke to us about the recent disappearance of honeybees before the pesticide spraying. They mention that in 2006 the bee population started to decline due to different disturbances in their environment. Those disturbance include, honeybees losing their food sources due to the cultivation of land, honeybees not being able to fight diseases and poisons well due to their genes, and the impact of global warming causing flowers to bloom earlier or later in the season, which doesn’t coincide with the bees coming out of hibernation. Volunteering at MUSC Urban Farm gave me the opportunity to do my part to help the honey bee community. While volunteering I helped build honey bee pollinators out of bamboo and twine for the local honey bees on the farm since the bee population is now declining. Thanks to the donation of a beehive from The Bee Cause Project, the Urban Farm at MUSC is able to continue their mission of building a healthier community and inspiring people in the community to eat local, nutritious and delicious foods. With the new hives, MUSC hope to change people’s perspective of bees as helpful creature which are needed to help pollinate most fruits and vegetables instead of the negative perception bees received as being terrorizer that can sting you. MUSC Urban Farm hopes that with forming this new perception of honeybees, people will think twice before choosing to spray pesticides. After volunteering with MUSC Urban Farm not only has my perception for honeybees change, but I also have the desire to support more locally grown fruits and vegetables vendors.Overall I had a great time volunteering at MUSC: Urban Farm, and I hope to continue to volunteer at MUSC Urban Farm and learn more about what I can do to help the declining bee population and influence more people to eat locally grown organic vegetables and produce.