Coke and Pepsi pressured to use more recycled content in packaging.

Proponents of recycling are once again using the upcoming shareholders meetings at Coca Cola and PepsiCo to try and force the soft drink giants to use more recycled content in their beverage containers.

Coca Cola and PepsiCo, which have a combined 75 percent share of the U.S. soft drink market, will hold their annual shareholder meetings April 17 and May 1, respectively. Shareholders will be asked to vote on whether Coca Cola and PepsiCo should be required to produce beverage containers made up of 25 percent recycled materials by 2005, according to the Container Recycling Institute and the GrassRoots Recycling Network.

According to figures supplied by the groups, Coca Cola and PepsiCo will generate 70 billion beverage containers this year. Their studies show that only an average of 41 percent of these containers will be recycled, with the majority being thrown away, burned in incinerators, or buried in landfills.

A report released this month by a group called Business and Environmentalists Allied for Recycling revealed that, in 1999, 192.5 billion aluminum, plastic, and glass containers were generated in the United States. The report said 78.1 billion of those containers were recycled and the rest were disposed of.

Officials at PepsiCo and Coca Cola have said in the past that they support using 10 percent of recycled materials in their plastic beverage containers by 2005. Coca Cola executives have also said that their goal is to reach a 100 percent recycling rate for all used bottles by 2005. Neither company has agreed to higher rates for the amount of recycled materials in new bottles because they have said that recycling is not cost effective.

Officials at PepsiCo deny charges by environmental groups that they have lobbied against deposit laws, which environmental advocates say are key to their beverage container recycling efforts. According to officials with the environmental groups, states that have beverage container deposit laws have the highest recycling rates -- an average of 78 percent.