Plastic pollution in the soft drinks sector continues to be a problem
The four biggest companies in the soft drinks market have come under fire for their contribution to plastic pollution in a recent report. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestle and Unilever have all been named as being responsible for more than half a million tonnes of plastic pollution in six developing countries. This data was published in a report carried out by the Christian charity Tearfund, which calculated the greenhouse gas emissions that were created from the open burning of plastic in the developing world. The charity took a sample of six developing countries that represented various parts of the world - they focussed their attention on developing countries because waste is more likely to be mismanaged as people tend to have less access to waste collection. As a result of this, people in these countries tend to burn or dump their waste, which is a huge contribution to pollution in these areas.
In the disappointing (but not all too surprising) findings, the aforementioned companies were responsible for 4.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide being produced in countries like India, Mexico, Brazil and Nigeria. To put this into perspective, this is the equivalent of the emissions of two million cars. Additionally, these companies have little to no mention of emissions from the disposal of their products in their climate change commitments.
The charity has urged these companies to address this problem within the drinks industry and switch to using reusable packaging. In a statement, they said: These companies continue to sell billions of products in single-use bottles, sachets and packets in developing countries,” says the report.
“And they do this despite knowing that: waste isn’t properly managed in these contexts; their packaging therefore becomes pollution; and such pollution causes serious harm to the environment and people’s health. Such actions – with such knowledge – are morally indefensible.”
It's not just in developing countries where these companies are causing havoc with their plastic pollution. Coca Cola, PepsiCo and Nestle have been fined by an environmental group in California called the Earth Island Institute, USA for misleading their consumers on the recyclability of the packaging of their products. The suit argues that corporations such as these should be held accountable for damaging the environment with their plastic packaging and that they should stop falsely advertising their packaging as ‘recyclable’.
This is an ongoing issue across sectors that provide consumer products. Only 10% of plastic used by these companies is actually recyclable but the majority of brands are still misinforming their customers and claiming that all their plastic packaging is recyclable. Plastic is one of the biggest contributors to the earth’s pollution and at the current rate of dumping, it is believed that there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050. So, it really is essential that these companies are held accountable and start addressing the issue of plastic pollution.
Thankfully, some big businesses are starting to lead by example and are taking measures to reduce the amount of plastic they’re using. Fellow drinks company Evian has pledged to use 100% recyclable plastic in their bottles by 2025, while also working with environmental charities to clear plastic out of our oceans. Outside of soft drinks, the Swedish furniture giant IKEA sets a good example by being one of the first companies to eliminate single-use plastic bags and offered customers re-usable bags for a small fee. It has now been reported that 92% of IKEA’s customer base now uses recyclable bags only when shopping in their stores. Another (and somewhat surprising) leader in sustainable packaging is the fast food giant McDonald’s. Since 2018, the fast food chain has started using packaging that come from certified and sustainable sources.
There are also new start-ups taking the drinks market by storm and offering consumers more ethical products. Companies like Whole Earth, Innocent Drinks and Lemonaid are offering environmentally friendly alternatives to ones the bigger-named brands are offering - that are ethically sourced and offered in sustainable packaging. These companies are also seeing huge success - the market leader Innocent Drinks surpassed their £300 million sales barrier back in 2017 and have gone from strength to strength ever since.
It’s important that these businesses take their impact on the environment seriously. They have access to so much money and resources that’s is crucial that they lead the way and use them wisely, instead of harming the planet even more. Thankfully, consumers are starting to become more savvy to environmental issues and are becoming more critical of the companies that they are buying from. Hopefully, this will cause these companies to wake up and starting to operate in a more environmentally friendly way.
