Coca-Cola and PepsiCo ranked as world's leading plastic polluters
Categories: DAILY NEWS
Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have been ranked as the world's leading plastic polluters for the fourth consecutive year.The rankings, released by 'Break Free From Plastic,' a global movement to demand massive reductions in single-use plastics and to push for lasting solutions to the plastic pollution crisis.Unilever, Nestle, Procter and Gamble, Mondeléz International, Philip Morris International, Danone, Mars, and Colgate-Palmolive are some other brands that are among the top polluters of 2021. Global plastic production rose from 20 million metric tons in 1966 to 381 million metric tons (MMT) in 2015, a 20-fold increase over half a century, the report said."Companies have focused on recycling and pilot projects, but that's not good enough. We need to reduce our dependence on single-use packaging and we want to see companies act to reduce it," said Joanne Green, senior policy advisor at Tearfund. "We are asking them to collect the items they sell. Coca-Cola is already doing it globally, but we want to see them do it on a country-by-country basis," she added.Research has shown nearly a thousand species of marine life are susceptible to plastic entanglement or to ingesting microplastics, which then make their way through the food web back to humans. The report said an estimated 8 MMT of plastic waste enters the world annually, "the equivalent of dumping a garbage truck of plastic waste into the ocean every minute."Improving waste capture technology would stop plastics in waterways, while stemming plastic disposal directly into the ocean itself also remains a priority. "This is the most comprehensive and damning report on plastic pollution ever published," said Judith Enk, president of the Beyond Plastics nonprofit. "It is a code red for plastics in the ocean and documents how litter cleanups are not going to save the ocean," she continued, adding it was urgent that policy makers and business leaders read the report and take action. "The finger-pointing stops now. We can no longer ignore the United States' role in the plastic pollution crisis, one of the biggest environmental threats facing our oceans and our planet today," added Christy Leavitt, Oceana's plastics campaign director.