Coca-Cola has revealed that it produces about 3 million tonnes of plastic packaging a year, which, according to reports, is the equivalent to 200,000 bottles a minute.
The soft drinks manufacturer provided the data to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which has recently reported its New Plastics Economy initiative.
Plastic Production
A number of major companies have signed up for the initiative, including French retailer Carrefour, Colgate Palmolive, Mars, Nestlé, The Coca-Cola Company, and Unilever.
Coca-Cola has historically refused to disclose this information, but in December last year, the group committed to a new transparent strategy.
However, this was in relation to sugar levels and obesity, but this marks the first time the company has disclosed such information.
Neslté produced over 1.7 million tonnes of plastic last year, as Unilever produced 610,000 tonnes, Colgate produced over 280,000 tonnes, Danone approximately 750,000 tonnes, Diageo only 40,000 tonnes, Mars 129,000 tonnes,
Johnson and Johnson, Kellogg’s, L’Oreal, PepsiCo, Pernod Ricard, Reckitt Benckiser, all refused to disclose how much plastic they produced last year.
UK retailer Marks and Spencer also signed the pact but failed to disclose how much plastic it produced.
'Significant Step Forward'
Ellen MacArthur Foundation said that the published data and pledges made by the companies on their actions to tackle plastic pollution offered new levels of transparency about global efforts to tackle the issue.
On average, consumer goods companies and retailers committed to increasing recycled content in their packaging to 25% by 2025, compared with the current global average of just 2%.
In addition to this, leading businesses and governments will end the use of problematic and unnecessary plastic - many of them by the end of this year.
“The targets and action plans set out in this report are a significant step forward compared with the pace of change of past decades,” New Plastics Economy lead Sander Defruyt said.
“However, they are still far from truly matching the scale of the problem, particularly when it comes to the elimination of unnecessary items and innovation towards reuse models.
“Ambition levels must continue to rise to make real strides in addressing global plastic pollution by 2025, and moving from commitment to action is crucial. Major investments, innovations, and transformation programmes need to start now.”
© 2019 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Aidan O’Sullivan. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
