Coca-Cola again named as world’s worst plastic polluter

The world’s worst plastic polluters have been revealed, with Coca-Cola coming top of the list for the fifth year in a row.

The revelation follows the food and drinks company’s sponsorship of the COP27 United Nations (UN) climate change conference held in Egypt in November.

The research from Break Free From Plasticals saw Mondelez International, Unilever, Nestle and PepsiCo as being among the top five plastic polluters - found out through an audit which saw 200,000 citizen scientists in 87 countries analysing rubbish they gathered on beaches and elsewhere.

Coca-Cola’s ‘trashiversary’ sees them not only land at the top spot for five years in a row, they also doubled their waste footprint in the same time period.

Commenting on the findings, Von Hernandez, Global Coordinator for Break Free From Plastic, advised “instead of allowing companies like Coke to greenwash their image, governments need to compel polluters to invest in reuse and alternative product delivery systems that avoid the problem in the first place.”

Break Free From Plastic are using the findings from their 2022 annual audit to join calls for a Global Plastics Treaty with legally binding mechanisms and enforcement policies, arguing the audit is evidence companies can’t be trusted to set their own targets.

Hernandez noted “Governments worldwide now have the justification and opportunity to effectively address and reverse the plastic pollution crisis by coming up with a global plastics treaty.”

In March this year negotiations began at the United Nations Environment Agency for a framework to solve plastic pollution. But the talks have not come to fruition yet.

In 2018 the UN launched a New Plastics Economy Global Commitment with voluntary sign-up from consumer companies including the biggest plastic polluters. A progress report in 2022 said that targets set for 2025 will “almost certainly” not be met.

Global campaign organisation SumOfUs is raising funds to buy shares Coca-Cola and other major plastic polluters to have our say directly at their annual general meetings - and to push for resolutions to their boards forcing them to reduce their use of plastics.

SumOfUs has already bought shares in Apple, Facebook, Google and Monsanto, and has highlighted that it helped force Apple to adopt its first human rights policy.

Click here for more information on the SumOfUs campaign.