The Coca-Cola Co.’s 2016 Sustainability Report is quite impressive. Among other commendable actions, the report shared that 60 percent of bottles and cans were refilled or recovered and recycled.

Interesting, then, that Coca-Cola seemingly overlooks the destructive practice of balloon releases. Their Super Bowl LII commercial, watched by an estimated 103.4 million people, includes a bicycle pedaler overwhelmed by a gigantic balloon bouquet. As the bicyclist pedals along, scores of balloons are coming untethered and flying up into the atmosphere.

Sadly, the chances are that those balloons are going to find their way into our wetlands, our oceans, our grasslands and our streams. And those balloons will cause a slow, painful strangulation death for some of our world’s most beautiful creatures.

It is baffling at best why Coca-Cola boasts so proudly about its recovery statistics. It makes one wonder what their plans are to recover the balloons released.

Join me in a boycott of Coca-Cola products – the list is very long, but it can be done. And write to the CEO, James Quincey, at P.O. Box 1734, Atlanta GA 30301, and demand an explanation as to why the company went against its sustainability policy in producing this ad.

Your local wildlife will thank you.

Lucy Webb Hardy

Wells