Coca-Cola defends single use plastic

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Posted 23 January, 2020

By Charlie Coombs

London, UK

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Speaking to the BBC, Coca-Cola’s senior vice president made clear that the company has no plans to drop its heavy reliance on single use plastics.

It probably doesn’t come as a huge surprise to many that Coca-Cola is a significant producer of plastic waste. Most of us have purchased bottles of the fizzy stuff at some point and chucked the leftover containers into a recycling bin without a second thought.

But the extent to which Coca-Cola produces waste is staggering. Each year the company creates 3 million tons of packaging waste, with 200’000 plastic bottles produced every single minute. Last year it was named the world’s most prolific plastic producing company in a report by the #BreakFreeFromPlastic campaign. So, yeh, it’s not looking too good.

Despite its abysmal reputation and track record, Coca-Cola appears to be standing firm on its current business model and refusing to drop its single use plastics, at least according to its senior vice president Beatriz Perez who spoke to the BBC this week. ‘Business won’t be in business if we don’t accommodate consumers’, she stated.

This is a disappointing move when you consider the worsening climate change and wastage situation, especially when Coca-Cola has been so keen to pretend that it’s an environmentally friendly company. It should be doing more to lower its monumental carbon footprint, and we need to hold it accountable.

Coca-Cola produces more plastic than the next three big brands combined – were it to eliminate single use material, it would have a significant impact on our wastage problem.

Despite my grumblings, it has to be said that Coca-Cola is at least taking some initiative to improve its wastage production. It’s pledged to use at least 50% recycled material in its packaging by 2030 and has started to roll out plastic bottles that are made entirely of recycled materials.

It’s a start, at least. Coca-Cola is also partnering with non-profit organisations across the globe in an effort to improve the collection of plastics and prevent them from filling up oceans and landfills. It currently recovers 59% of its bottles and reuses 9% of these in new bottles. This is all good stuff, but the reality here is that Coca-Cola has no plans to reduce its use of plastic or offer alternative materials that are less harmful to the environment.

And, while some of the blame can be placed on consumers, other big chain franchises have demonstrated that there are better ways to reduce your carbon footprint on a global scale. For example, brands such as Starbucks and McDonalds have replaced plastic with paper, or gotten rid of packaging altogether. Others such as Whole Foods have eliminated plastic bags as an option entirely in its stores, and Starbucks has pushed toward reusable cups that may even hurt its profits in the long run.

Coca-Cola seems adamant to stay at its current level of plastic bottle production, when really the best option is to get rid of them altogether. I wouldn’t hold your breath for that to happen in the foreseeable future.

Charlie Coombs

Editor In Chief London, UK

I’m Charlie (He/Him), the Editor In Chief at Thred. I studied English at the University of Birmingham and as a music and gaming enthusiast, I’m a nerd for pop culture. You can find me curating playlists, designing article headline images, and sipping cider on a Thursday. Follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn and drop me some ideas/feedback via email.

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