Coca-Cola is the top polluter in a global audit of plastic waste released by the Break Free From Plastic NGO.
The report shows that the transnational soft drink conglomerate is responsible for even more plastic trash than the next top three polluters combined.
More than 72,500 volunteers spread across 51 countries worked on beaches, in waterways, and walked along city streets picking up plastic bottles, bags, scraps, wrappers, and other waste during a one-day cleanup in September 2019 to complete the audit.
The report described how Coca-Cola was by far the top polluter, with 11,732 plastics recorded from across 37 countries on four continents, accounting for roughly 2.5% of total plastic waste analyzed throughout the report. The company was the number plastic source in Europe and Africa and the second-largest source in Asia and South America.
Nestle and PepsiCo came in at the second and third place, respectively, as the second runner up of top producers of plastic waste, with Mondelez International—the owner of popular snack brands such as Oreo, Nabisco, Ritz, and Nutter Butter—and Unilever coming in as runners-up.
BREAKING: @CocaCola, @Nestle and @PepsiCo named top plastic polluters for SECOND year in a row.
— breakfreefromplastic (@brkfreeplastic) October 23, 2019
It's time we held them to account.
Read the full #BreakFreeFromPlastic #BrandAudit2019 report: https://t.co/TVptCFUDAQ pic.twitter.com/IT78TSWk1P
Other top ten brands included Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Mars, Phillip Morris International, and Perfetti Van Mille.
The world reacted and rightly so:
I don’t understand why they are still selling take away sized fizzy drinks in plastic bottles when there are already cans and glass bottles available on the same supermarket/shop shelves? Stop the small plastic bottles immediately as you already offer an alternative! #cutplastic
— Sally-Anne (@s4llysunshine) October 23, 2019
While some noted that consumers are responsible as well:
How are @CocaCola @Nestle & @PepsiCo “...top plastic polluters...” No one is forcing people to buy their snacks. Furthermore, it is incumbent upon the purchasers of the aforementioned snacks to use a trashcan or recycle bin.
— Leif Vixen (@DeplorableJoe3) October 23, 2019
Coca-Cola had previously admitted it produces a staggering 3.3 million tons of plastic packaging annually, the rough equivalent of nearly 200,000 bottles every single minute, in figures released to The Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Many of the companies have promised to make their products “100 percent recyclable,” yet Break Free From Plastic has blasted that as corporate propaganda that woefully falls short of addressing the real issue, pointing out that “recycling is not the magic solution it is often claimed to be.”
@cocacola @Nestle @PepsiCo @MDLZ and @Unilever are the top 5 corporate plastic polluters of 2019. It's time for them to be held accountable. Read the full @brkfreeplastic #BrandAudit2019 report: https://t.co/CPnNraLQlK BreakFreeFromPlastic @future_spain
— VÃctor Cuevas 🌱 (@vcuevas) November 5, 2019
Coke introduced a new plastic bottle that it claims is made from recycled marine plastic, while, in 2018, the company vowed to collect and recycle “the equivalent of every bottle or can it sells globally.”
Nevertheless, plastic bottles are only able to be recycled a few times before their polymer chains shorten, leading to a deterioration of quality. Many plastics are also turned into products such as clothing, construction material and other products which are not ever recycled again.
The use of plastic is truly key to the workings of the global economy. Though most global and local authorities acknowledge the huge harm it causes to the environment; its usage has also paved the way to incredible advances in modern society in the fields of medicine, water transportation, food preservation, hygiene, high technology, and a variety of other applications.
However, in an economy that puts the greatest incentive on short-term profit and a culture revolving around convenience and mass consumption, plastics have become a curse—with a “throwaway” mentality as well as single-use disposable products displacing reusable, durable, and washable products.
While fracked natural gas supplies increase in the US and across the globe, the cost of producing as well as exporting plastics has become cheaper, making the plastic market remarkably profitable once more for the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries.
Notably, the company, its subsidiaries and products have been subject to criticism by both environmentalists and consumers since the early 2000s.
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