Coca-Cola plastic packaging up by 8.8% in one year
Oceana analyzed data from the Global Commitment 2022 Progress Report released earlier this week by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and found the Coca-Cola Company increased its use of plastic packaging by nearly 9% or over 579 million pounds (263 thousand metric tons) from a reported 2.96 million metric tons in 2020 to 3.22 million metric tons in 2021. This increase coincides with findings from the report that the company failed to make any meaningful progress towards meeting its pledges to increase recycled content in its plastic packaging and decrease its use of virgin plastic packaging
WASHINGTON, Nov. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Oceana analyzed data from the Global Commitment 2022 Progress Report released earlier this week by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and found the Coca-Cola Company increased its use of plastic packaging by nearly 9% or over 579 million pounds (263 thousand metric tons) from a reported 2.96 million metric tons in 2020 to 3.22 million metric tons in 2021. This increase coincides with findings from the report that the company failed to make any meaningful progress towards meeting its pledges to increase recycled content in its plastic packaging and decrease its use of virgin plastic packaging.
Oceana released the following statement from Dana Miller, Ph.D., Oceana Director of Strategic Initiatives:
“This new report makes it clear that Coca-Cola’s recycling pledges are not stopping the ever-growing tsunami of plastic that is overwhelming our oceans. How can the company use an additional 500 million pounds of plastic in one year and at the same time consider itself to be addressing its plastic problem? Bottles with recycled content will still be thrown away, sent to landfills, burned, or littered. Some of these bottles will end up in our oceans.
In 2022, an Oceana analysis found that leading soft drink companies’ recycled content pledges have little impact on reducing the flow of plastic into the world’s waterways and seas. This is because recycled content pledges do not change consumer behaviors or improve bottle collection rates.
