Coca Cola, Nestlé and PepsiCo are the top global polluters in plastic waste

• Food and beverages multinationals — Coca Cola, Nestlé, Pepsico — are the top three polluters in plastic waste, globally.
  
• Of a total of over 475,000 pieces of plastic collected from 50 countries, 19,904 plastic pieces were of Coca Cola, Nestle and PepsiCo.
  
• Coca Cola has been marked as the worst company for plastic pollution for the second consecutive year — accounting for 11,732 pieces of waste plastic across 37 countries.
  
• Studies estimate that nearly 500 billion plastic bottles will be sold next year and merely 45 billion will be recycled.

Food and beverages multinationals — Coca Cola, Nestlé, PepsiCo — are the top three polluters in plastic waste, globally.

According to an annual audit conducted by environmental group Break Free From Plastic, of the total of over 475,000 pieces of plastic collected from 50 countries, 19,904 plastic pieces belonged to Coca Cola, Nestlé and PepsiCo. The environment group collected plastic waste from beaches, streets and waterways.

Other plastic polluters include Unilever, Mars and Colgate Palmolive.

In fact, Coca Cola has been marked as the worst company for plastic pollution for the second consecutive year — accounting for 11,732 pieces of waste plastic across 37 countries.

“Anytime our packaging ends up in our oceans — or anywhere that it doesn’t belong — is unacceptable to us. In partnership with others, we are working to address this critical global issue, both to help turn off the tap in terms of plastic waste entering our oceans and to help clean up the existing pollution,” Coca Cola told The Intercept.

Coca-Cola partnered with Dr Pepper and PepsiCo to announce a plastic recycling programme — ‘Every Bottle Back’ — to cut down on the use of new plastic and improve the quality of recycled plastics. The move is aimed to ensure awareness that the bottles are 100% recyclable and can be transformed into new bottles.

The audit aims to clean public places off plastic along with identifying the companies that make the most of it. According to studies, every minute there are over a million plastic bottles made and most of them are not recycled. It estimates that nearly 500 billion plastic bottles will be sold next year and merely 45 billion will be recycled.

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