THE Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, and Nestlé are the world’s top plastic polluters for five years running, according to NGO Break Free From Plastic’s latest global brand audit report, with the US-based fizzy drinks (Coca-Cola) maker the unfortunate number one.
Plastics now litter all oceans and other crucial waterways in most parts of the world, including in Malaysia, a nation surrounded by oceans and channels.
The 2022 Brand Audit analyses five years' worth of citizen scientist trash-collection data, exposing how corporate voluntary commitments are not effective at reducing these companies’ devastating environmental impacts.
In response, activists around the world are calling for a Global Plastics Treaty that can provide legally binding mechanisms and enforcement policies to effectively reduce the amount of plastic both produced and used by corporations.
This reinforces the irony facing the global community that polluters are part of the fight against pollution, but it is also a welcome respite that corporate entities understand their impact on the environment, said activists from Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM), a part of the BFFP arm in the country.
Filipino Von Hernandez, the global coordinator of BFFP shares his verdict that:
“Instead of allowing companies like Coke to greenwash their image, governments need to compel polluters to invest in reuse and alternative product delivery systems that avoid the problem in the first place.
“This is one of the key systemic changes required for the world to avert the full consequences of climate change and plastic pollution.
“Governments worldwide now have the justification and opportunity to effectively address and reverse the plastic pollution crisis by coming up with a global plastics treaty that cuts plastic production, makes corporations accountable for the pollution they are causing and mainstreams reuse-based alternatives.”
And polluters are not getting away easy as a statement released from BFFP revealed that activists in the Philippines have filed legal complaints against seven corporations for dangerous plastic packaging, false ‘recyclable plastic’ claims.
Since 2018, global cleanups have been carried out by more than 200,000 volunteers in 87 countries and territories to identify the companies polluting the most places with the most plastic waste.
Over all five years, more Coca-Cola Company branded items were collected than the next top two polluters combined.
This year’s brand audits found more than 31,000 Coca-Cola branded products, doubling the proportion of Coca-Cola products found in 2018.
These findings are revealed as the top polluter is serving as a sponsor of the UN climate change conference COP27 in Egypt.
Given that 99% of plastic is made from fossil fuels, Coca-Cola’s role in COP27 baffles environmental activists.
In response to corporate inaction, activists worldwide are commemorating a five-year ‘Trashiversary’ for these companies by mailing or delivering their own waste to them to demand urgent action.
The actions are taking place today, targeting Coca-Cola in Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, the US, and Zambia; Unilever in Indonesia, the United Kingdom, and South Africa; and PepsiCo in India and Tanzania.
In the Philippines, 32 Filipino consumers filed a complaint at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Fair Trade Enforcement Bureau-Mediation and Adjudication Bureau against Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, Nestle, Unilever, Procter and Gamble, Colgate Palmolive and Universal Robina Corp (URC).
In 2018, the same year that Brand Audits efforts started, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the United Nations Environment Programme together launched the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment.
This program centred on a set of voluntary commitments to address plastic pollution made by major fast-moving consumer goods companies, including most of the top plastic polluters.
However, the Global Commitment 2022 Progress Report revealed that their 2025 targets will “almost certainly” not be met.
For many of these companies, the use of plastic packaging has actually increased since signing the global commitment, exposing how voluntary actions are not leading to any kind of significant impact on plastic reduction.
Considering the failing voluntary commitments of many of the major plastic polluting companies, the BFFP is calling for an ambitious, legally binding Global Plastics Treaty.
The first treaty negotiation meeting will be held in Punta Del Este, Uruguay, at the end of the month. – The Vibes, November 16, 2022
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