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Oct 17, 20233 min read

Coca-Cola is the world’s leader in plastic pollution, with a close follow by PepsiCo and Nestlé




Congratulations, Coca-Cola! You’re the inaugural entry into the GIC Hall of Shame! Some say it's lonely at the top, but not this time. PepsiCo and Nestlé join you with their dishonorable mentions for following the leader.


Despite joining the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment (now called the Ellen MacArthur Foundation), Coca-Cola continues to make 200,000 plastic bottles a minute. In 2020, the company faced backlash when it decided not to abandon plastic bottles because they were "popular with customers." In other words, profit over planet. (Oxycontin was popular with customers, too, but I digress.)


I started writing this post a few days ago after learning that Coca-Cola is the world’s leader in plastic pollution for multiple years running, followed by PepsiCo and Nestlé. A trifecta in shame. For whatever reason, I switched focus to highlight The Story of Stuff Project as a Garbage Hero. Coincidentally, the Story of Stuff homepage featured a movie titled “How Coke killed the refillable bottle,” stating “Coke knew their plastic would trash the planet…and did it anyway.” The information in that video solidified my Hall of Shame selection. (Watch the 13-minute video below.)


The video opens with this quote from Paul Austin in 1970, when he was CEO of Coca-Cola:


“Unless all of us begin immediately to reverse the processes of impending self-destruction which we have set in motion, this green land of ours will become a graveyard. “

He sounds like a good guy and a forward thinker, except that he later stated,


“Through our research…we’re convinced that the plastic bottle is one of the most environmentally responsible packaging options available.”

Hey Paul, the company did a lifecycle analysis study under your watch and confirmed the exact opposite to be true. It found that refillable bottles—not plastic ones—were the most environmentally responsible option.


Coca-Cola, through its involvement in the canning, brewing, and beverage industry, is one of the OG greenwashers. The industry created the “Keep America Beautiful” organization as a way to placate the public and its growing concern about increased litter, and it lobbied to kill a bill in 1970 that would have banned non-returnable containers. It later approached the federal government to begin a recycling campaign that essentially outsourced the litter problem to consumers. (Related, see The displaced cost of post-consumer waste.) Recycling has failed miserably, as I mention in Plastic keeps me up at night.


More recently, the environmental organization Earth Island Institute filed a lawsuit alleging that "Coca-Cola engaged in false and deceptive marketing by representing itself as a 'sustainable and environmentally friendly company' despite being one of the world's largest contributors to plastic pollution." The case was dismissed because the court found Coca-Cola’s statements to be “aspirational in nature” and therefore not in violation of the District of Columbia Consumer Protection Procedures Act (CPPA).


Coca-Cola hasn’t given us smiles. It’s given us piles—of plastic. Please vote with your dollar and stop supporting Coca-Cola and the brands it owns, including Barq's, Topo Chico, Dasani, smartwater, vitaminwater, Minute Maid, and Simply juices, to name just a few.


PepsiCo brands include Doritos, Cheetos, Tostitos, Lays, Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Tropicana, Bubly, SmartFood, Sabra, Quaker, and many more.


Nestlé brands include Alpo, Boost, Carnation, Cheerios, Coffee-Mate, DiGiorno, Häagen-Dazs, KitKat, Nescafé, Nespresso, Perrier, Purina, S. Pellegrino, Stouffer's, and the list goes on and on.


It's disconcerting that so many brands are owned by these three companies. They have power and presence, and yet willingly continue to feed the growing waste crisis with so little accountability or action. Shameful indeed.



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