Coca-Cola ranked world No 1 plastic polluter amid Thai trash tsunami
Coca-Cola has been identified as the world’s largest plastic polluter, contributing to Thailand's ranking as the fifth-largest contributor to plastic trash in the ocean.
More than half of the world’s branded plastic pollution comes from 56 companies, according to a new study published by 12 international organisations.
The study found that Coca-Cola is the brand responsible for the highest level of plastic pollution worldwide at 11% of the total.
Next came PepsiCo at 5%, followed by Nestlé and Danone at 3% each.
Led by Canada’s Dalhousie University (DU) and published in the academic journal Science Advances, the five-year research project found roughly equal amounts of branded and unbranded plastic pollution.
The project’s findings provided fresh insights into which products end up as plastic pollution and highlighted the need to reduce single-use plastics and boost sustainability, said Kate Willis, a researcher at Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, which took part in the study.
"This includes safe and sustainable product designs that cut global demand for new products, and increasing reusability, repairability and recyclability," Wills said in a press release on Friday.
More than half of the branded plastic trash came from 56 multinationals, said the study’s co-author, Tony Walker, from DU’s Faculty of Resource and Environmental Studies.
The research notes that global plastic production doubled from 200 million tonnes to 400 million tonnes in 2020 compared with the year before.
Branded the world’s worst plastic polluter, Coca-Cola says it will clean up its act with fully recyclable plastic packaging worldwide by 2025, selling at least 50% of beverages in recycled packaging by 2030, and collecting and recycling one used bottle for every plastic bottle sold by 2030. Critics say that recycling won’t effectively combat the global tsunami of plastic trash and have called for a switch to refillable bottles.
PepsiCo and Nestlé insisted last week they were also committed to recycling as a way of reducing plastic pollution.
A 2021 report by packaging multinational RAJA ranked Thailand as the world’s fifth-worst dumper of ocean plastic trash with 22.8 million kilograms finding its way into the sea each year.
Topping the ranking was India with 126.5 million kilograms, followed by China (70.7 million), Indonesia (56.3 million) and Brazil (38 million).
