Following the cleaning of the bottles, a waste sludge is produced that Coca-Cola have been disposing of on the land of local farmers, claiming it was a useful fertilizer. Following a BBC Radio 4 program, samples of the sludge were analyzed by scientists at Exeter University in the south-west of England and found to contain toxic chemicals including lead and cadmium-both of which can be harmful to humans-and further suggested that there was little or no benefit of the sludge as a fertilizer. Recent tests by the local state laboratories find that the levels of toxic chemicals are within safety levels but that it should not be used as a fertilizer.
In a separate development, sales of Coca-Cola have been hit by suggestions that its drinks produced in India contained higher levels of pesticide residues than was healthy! A large number of bodies have joined in the local community is campaign demanding the plant be closed down and that tests be carried out on Coca-Cola to issue an angry comment claiming that the reports were scurrilous, unnesessarily scared large numbers of Coca-Cola is customers and put thousands of jobs in its plants throughout India at risk. Coca-Cola claims to employ in excess of 5,000 people in the country, not to mention the many thousands that are linked in some way to the product.