Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestlé named top plastic polluters for third year in a row

Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Nestlé have been accused of “zero progress” on reducing plastic waste, after being named the world’s top plastic polluters for the third year in a row.

Coca-Cola was ranked the world’s number one plastic polluter by the charity ‘Break Free From Plastic’ in its annual survey, after its drink bottles were the most commonly found item left on beaches, rivers, parks and other litter sites in 51 of the 55 countries that took part in the survey. This is an increase from last year where Coca-Cola was the most frequently littered bottle in 37 out of 51 countries.

It was found to be worse than PepsiCo and Nestlé combined: Coca-Cola branding was found on 13,834 pieces of plastic, with PepsiCo branding on 5,155 and Nestlé branding on 8,633.

According to Tearfund’s report, the burning of plastic packaging produced by consumer companies creates 4.6 million tons of carbon dioxide a year. That’s the equivalent of 2 million cars. Every year, Coca-Cola creates 200,000 tons of plastic waste, equivalent to 8 billion bottles, and enough to cover 33 soccer field every day.

The annual inspection was carried out by 15,000 volunteers around the world – they identified the largest number of plastic products from global companies found in the highest number of countries.

• Coca-Cola labels were found on 13,834 pieces of plastic which were left as waste across 51 countries.
• PepsiCo contributed 5,155 pieces of plastics across 43 countries.
• For Nestlé this was 8,633 plastics – more than Pepsi, but across fewer countries at 37.
• Single-use sachets, such as ketchup, coffee and shampoo, were the most commonly found type of item, followed by cigarette butts (the part left behind after use), then plastic bottles.
• 63% of the plastic waste collected by volunteers were marked with a company name on it.