Sure, but it is absolutely not helpful to reframe it in a negative way. Coca-Cola is fighting bottle deposits. And they're not evenfighting battle deposits, they are fighting the reduced sales that will result from bottle deposits. They aren't fighting recycling.

If you are somebody who wants recycling that is a very useful distinction because it gives you a place to find common ground. There is room for recycling advocates and Coca-Cola to work together, whereas if Coca-Cola were just opposed to recycling there would not be.

Ha ha, agreed that is a useful distinction. I confess to not reading the article...

But at some level I think only considering personal gain is negative

Otherwise we would say tobacco companies weren't negative to surpress evidence of cancer... Just because they want to sell cigarettes

Are coca-cola undermining the common ground? If they openly try to resolve these issues, I don't think anyone would call it negative

-- I want coca-cola to be their own main advocates for improvement