While environmental campaigners fight tooth and nail to save our planet, Coca-Cola continues to destroy it.
The drinks giant refuses to ditch single-use plastic bottles because “consumers still want them,” head of sustainability Bea Perez told the BBC.
As one of the largest manufacturers of synthetic waste, Coke produces some three million tons of plastic packaging each year—about 200,000 bottles per minute.
In a 2019 global audit, it was deemed the top-polluting company (alongside Nestlé and PepsiCo) by the charity Break Free From Plastic (BFFP).
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, Perez said the firm recognizes it must now be “part of the solution.”
Last year, Coca-Cola introduced new bottles made with 25 percent marine plastic—specifically, plastic polluting the Mediterranean Sea or found washed up on its beaches.
Coke pledged to, by 2030, recycle as many plastic bottles as it uses and employ at least 50 percent recycled material in its packaging. But it won’t reject the material entirely—for fear of alienating customers and losing sales.
People like plastic bottles, the company said; they’re lightweight (unlike glass) and resealable (unlike cans).
Besides, using only aluminum and glass packaging could increase the firm’s carbon footprint, Perez argued.
“Business won’t be in business if we don’t accommodate consumers,” she said. “So as we change our bottling infrastructure, move into recycling and innovate, we also have to show the consumer what the opportunities are. They will change with us.”
Not everyone.
Coke’s stubborn stance will likely alienate some patrons, who are opting for more eco-friendly options (like Jason Momoa’s line of water in a pull-tab can).
“Recent commitments by corporations like Coca-Cola … to address the crisis unfortunately continue to rely on false solutions,” Abigail Aguilar, Greenpeace Southeast Asia plastic campaign coordinator, said in a statement to BFFP.
Replacing plastic with paper or bioplastics and relying heavily on a “broken global recycling system” are not a proper fix.
“These strategies largely protect the outdated throwaway business model that caused the plastic pollution crisis,” she added. “And will do nothing to prevent these brands from being named the top polluters again in the future.”
Starbucks, meanwhile, has revealed a “new sustainability commitment,” promising to expand its plant-based menu options and shift to reusable packaging, as well as invest in conservation, waste management, and environmentally friendly operations, manufacturing, and delivery.
“We agree with the consensus of scientific experts who note that without drastic action from everyone—governments, companies, and all of us as individuals—adapting to the impact of climate change in the future will be far more difficult and costly,” CEO Kevin Johnson wrote in an announcement.
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