The companies' Beijing bottling plants were included on a list of the top 12 factories causing water pollution issued by the Beijing Development and Reform Commission, the capital's economic planning agency.

But they insisted their plants abided by Chinese standards and Beijing authorities later confirmed the companies reached standards for waste water emission, although there was room for improvement, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

A spokesman with the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau said any enterprises that discharge pollutants to water, whether they reached standards or not, are considered as polluting factories, Xinhua reported.

The term "key water polluting factories" means the enterprises use a large amount of water and belong to chemical, medicine, electric, beverage and food manufacturing, the spokesman said.

PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are comparatively large users of water and belong to the beverage industry, so they were listed, he added, according to Xinhua.

"The listed companies have reached the Chinese standards for pollutants emission," he said. "But there is no best, but better, in environmental protection."

A separate list of 15 top energy consumers in the Chinese capital included the Benz-DaimlerChrysler plant.

PepsiCo earlier issued a statement saying its inclusion on the list "simply reflects that the plant, which strictly adheres to all national standards for wastewater treatment and emissions, is a large user of water."

The company said it had won several awards in China for water conservation and added it would continue to work with Chinese authorities to further reduce water use.

A spokesman for Coca-Cola based in Hong Kong, Kenth Kaerhoeg, said the firm's Beijing plant "meets municipal wastewater effluent standards as well as the very stringent standards set by The Coca-Cola Company."

"In addition to complying with wastewater standards, the Coca-Cola system is working to improve the efficiency of our water use in all of our facilities. Globally, our goal is to improve efficiency by 20 percent by 2012," he said.

The Beijing city commission said in a notice published on its website that the 27 entities listed will be subject to increased supervision.

The commission told AFP Thursday that it could not immediately comment on the companies' reactions. The notice was still visible on the commission's website on Thursday.

The spokesman for Coca-Cola said the company would work closely with Beijing municipal authorities on their review of its operations there.

earlier related report
Coca-Cola, Pepsi on Beijing's worst polluter list: govt
The Beijing plants of US soft drink giants Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have been listed as among the top 12 factories causing major water pollution in China's capital, the city government has announced.

The list issued by the Beijing Development and Reform Commission, the capital's economic planning agency, was published along with the top 15 energy users in the capital, which included the Beijing Benz-DaimlerChrysler plant.

China has set a goal of reducing average energy consumption by 20 percent from 2006 to 2010. This means it has to cut average consumption by four percent annually over the five-year period -- a target it has so far failed to meet.

"2009 is a key year for fulfilling our energy-saving and pollution-reduction goals," the commission said in a statement on its website, cited by the Beijing News on Wednesday.

The 27 entities will be subject to increased supervision and asked to submit plans to reduce energy use and pollution emissions, the commission said.

PepsiCo-Beijing and Coca-Cola-Beijing refused immediate comment on the issue when contacted by AFP on Wednesday.

The Beijing News quoted Beijing Benz-DaimlerChrysler as saying it would this year "step up the scope of reducing energy use and emissions, saving energy and treating waste water and waste through technological upgrading".

The Tsingtao brewery in Beijing, top juice maker Huiyuan and several major Chinese dairy producers made the list of major water polluters.

Among Beijing's top energy users were the Capital Iron and Steel Corporation and the American chemical company Praxair.

Share This Article With Planet Earth

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Related Links
Our Polluted World and Cleaning It Up

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News