The Coca-Cola Company was once again the largest plastic polluter in the world in 2023, according to the annual report from the NGO Break Free From Plastic, published this Wednesday February 7.
Waste in the colors of the American group's brands was found in the collections of NGO volunteers in 40 out of 41 countries where these operations were organized.
This is the sixth consecutive year that Coca-Cola has been at the top of this ranking, which calculates an estimate of the global pollution of each brand based on this – substantial – sample of collections around the world.
In 2023, more than 6% of the 537,719 plastic waste collected by the NGO's volunteers had been put on the market by the soda giant.
Also read Plastic: a colossal and persistent problem
90% of food and beverage packaging
Nestlé, Unilever, PepsiCo and Mondelez complete the top 5. PepsiCo even surpasses its rival Coca-Cola in terms of the number of waste found, but they were present in fewer countries (only 30), which allowed it to avoid being seen award the dunce cap.
Among the waste collected: bottles, candy bags, diapers, yogurt pots, cigarette butts... More than 90% of them came from the food industry.
One in five plastic waste was a bottle, and a quarter of the waste was made of PET, a plastic that is nevertheless easily recyclable.
Faced with this persistent pollution, the NGO asks the companies identified for transparency on the quantity of plastic they put on the market each year.
Break Free From Plastic also want them to abandon the use of single-use plastic for reusable or biodegradable containers.
And the NGO is annoyed that despite the official commitments of these companies, the top plastic polluters
“remain the same year after year.
This proves that we must act, and no longer be satisfied with announcements.”