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Coca-Cola made the plastic disclosure as part of the “New Plastics Economy initiative” of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which is pushing for more plastic recycling and changes in plastic packaging use.
According to The Guardian, Coca-Cola’s 3.3 million tons of plastic packaging translates to roughly 108 billion bottles per year.
Coca-Cola is one of 31 companies that agreed to report to the Foundation how much plastic packaging they create as part of a drive — and the Ellen MacArthurFoundation issued a report this week, saying that combined, those 31 companies produce 8m tons of plastic packaging a year.
Coca-Cola’s plastic packaging use was nearly twice that of Nestlé, which was in second place for plastic use, with Danone a distant third. Unlike Coca-Cola, most of the other 150 companies that agreed to reduce their plastic pollution have refused to make their plastic packaging numbers public, which makes it hard to hold them accountable. There are some big companies on the list of those that don’t disclose, including Pepsi Co, Walmart, and L’Oréal.
Why This Matters: To state the obvious, that is a huge amount of plastic. When compared to the challenge that we face in implementing a Green New Deal or cutting carbon emissions, reducing the amount of plastic we produce and use each year just for plastic bottles seems equally daunting. And as successful as the campaign to eliminate plastic straws has been in raising awareness about plastic pollution, straws only account for .03 percent of the 8 million metric tons of plastics estimated to enter the oceans in a given year. We need to reduce and recycle plastic bottles. Hopefully, Coca-Cola’s small grants to these worthy organizations will lead to bigger investments by them and other large corporations so that we can begin to get a handle on our plastic bottle addiction.
Spooky season is almost over, how does your everyday werewolf or vampire keep it green this Halloween? While the holiday can easily be filled with candy wrappers, disposable decorations, and costumes your kid will likely never wear again, the internet has some “tricks” to keep your celebrations environmentally friendly. EcoWatch’s list of best methods […]
This past July, all eyes were on Tokyo when over 10,000 Olympians from 206 nations descended on the city to make history. Despite a decrease in carbon emissions due to COVID-19 and fewer traveling spectators, the games still produced 2.3 million tons of CO2. In 2021, The International Olympic Committee (IOC) pledged to reduce […]
Startups across the country are on a mission to provide sustainable food packaging options and close the plastic loop, especially prompted by the pandemic take-out boom. Over 70% of Americans order delivery one to three times a week, creating hundreds of billions of single-use bowls, bags, utensils, and more. But some innovative companies have […]
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