Coca Cola and Plastic Pollution (Extract 1)

Coca Cola plastic have a negative impact in our society when it comes to pollution despite decades of
failure to recycle more than a very small percentage of its plastic packaging, the Coca-Cola Company
is again trying to sell people on its recycling efforts. Coca-Cola is a top target for consumer, investor
and environmental groups concerned about petroleum-based plastic single-use bottles clogging
oceans, among other problems. Coca-Cola has been declared the worst plastic polluter in the world.
Although Coca-Cola company says it is trying to solve the plastic problem, the company is taking
steps that are making it worse. It pumps out 200,000 bottles a minute, an equivalent of 3 million tons
of plastic packaging a year. The company was the world's worst plastic polluter for the fourth year in
a row in 2021, according to the global coalition Break Free from Plastic's annual report released in
October. Coca-Cola is one of 31 companies including Mars, Nestlé, and Danone they have revealed
how much plastic packaging they create as part of a drive for transparency by the Ellen MacArthur
Foundation. Combined, they produce 8m tonnes of plastic packaging a year but the majority of the
150 companies who have signed up to MacArthur’s global commitment to reduce plastic pollution are
still refusing to publicly disclose figures on their own plastic packaging production. These include
Pepsi Co, H&M, L’Oréal, Walmart, and Marks & Spencer. Coca-Cola’s plan to reduce the millions of
plastic bottles that end in the world’s oceans every day has been criticised by environmental groups.
Designers and environmentalists have slammed Coca-Cola's efforts to tackle plastic pollution as
greenwashing and a huge step backwards in sustainability. Millions of people do not even know
where all the plastic bottles go to, and many people do not bother to even reuse or recycle their Coca
Cola plastic bottles. The bottle labels are made of biaxially-oriented polypropylene (BOPP), or
“number 5 plastic,” which is not recyclable. In addition, while the bottles themselves are made of
polyethylene terephthalate (PET), or “number 1 plastic,” at least 28% of PET plastic that is deposited
for recycling is unrecyclable due to contamination and processing loss. In any event, most plastic
bottles are not actually recycled, but instead end up in landfills, incinerators, the ocean, rivers, or
littered across the landscape. Plastic degrades each time it is recycled, it cannot be endlessly recycled
into useful products, nor is plastic recycling economical. As a result, American consumers throw
away more than 60 million plastic bottles every day. According to a report by ocean conservation
group Coca-Cola’s 9% increase amounted to 263 metric tonnes, meaning that annual plastic waste
went from 2.96 million metric tonnes in 2020 to 2021’s 3.22 million metric tonnes. Ocean
conversation group’s report also enumerated that Coca-Cola had failed to meet pledges that would see
it increase the use of recycled plastics in packaging while decreasing its use of virgin plastics. Coca-
Cola, Pepsi, and other international brands in January called for a global pact that included calls to cut
plastic production, a key growth area for the oil industry. Coca-Cola was named the world’s worst
plastic polluter for the third year in a row. That means that no matter what beach you stand on, or
which city block you stroll, you are most likely to find Coke-branded plastic posing a threat to both
our waterways and communities. For decades, Coca-Cola and other consumer goods companies have
relied on the myth of recycling to avoid responsibility for this pollution. They have played up recycled
content as a way to continue using harmful single use plastics and put the onus on all of us to clean up
their trash, while refusing to recognize that their plastic problem is beyond being solved by recycling
or clean up initiatives.
Thank you very much!
https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/coca-cola-criticized-plastic-pollution-pledges-
25-reusable-packaging-2022-02-10/

https://www.sierraclub.org/michigan/blog/2022/12/coca-cola-s-plastic-pollution-problem

https://sustainabilitymag.com/articles/coca-cola

https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/47293/coca-cola-its-time-to-stop-your-pollution-at-
source/