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Coca-Cola, ironically the sponsor of the COP27 United Nations Climate Summit in Egypt, is named the worst plastic polluter in the world for the fifth time in a row, followed by PepsiCo. 

According to its annual brand audit, Break Free From Plastic, a coalition of 2,700 NGOs working to reduce single-use plastic, found that the US-based company has been the world’s “top polluter” this year.

The brand audits aim at gathering evidence to hold corporations responsible for unrecyclable plastic or recyclable plastic that ends up as discarded waste.

Last month, Emma Priestland, the coordinator for Break Free From Plastic said: “Coca-Cola sponsoring the Cop27 is pure ‘greenwash’. Coca-Cola is one of the world’s biggest users of plastic. Over four years, we’ve found Coca-Cola to be the world’s top plastic polluter in our annual brand audits... it’s astounding that a company so tied to the fossil fuel industry is allowed to sponsor such a vital climate meeting.”

Waste was collected from indoors and outdoors, streets and neighborhoods in 87 countries between the years 2018 and 2022 and Break Free From Plastic recorded 2,125,414 pieces of plastic waste.

The plastic waste belonged to Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestlé, Unilever, Mondelēz International, Mars, Procter & Gamble, Philip Morris International, Danone, and Ferrero Group.

The report discovered more than 1,000 Coca-Cola branded products were found this year alone— more than 1000 waste products in 11 countries and more than 30,000 in 39 countries. “Year after year, the exact same FMCG companies continue to dominate the list, with the Coca-Cola Company standing out as the clear top polluter by a significant margin over all five years,” Break Free From Plastic said.

In a dozen countries including Bangladesh, Argentina, Malaysia, Kenya, and Turkey, Coca-Cola made the top of the list of wastage, but competitor PepsiCo topped the list in both the US and India as the number one polluter this year - Philip Morris International, a multinational tobacco company, ranked the top polluter this year in the UK. 

Packaging such as wrappers, coffee cups, sachets, cigarette ends and masks were the most common type of waste.

Greenwashing by Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola has been accused of greenwashing - the term used to describe an action taken by a company claiming to be environment-friendly to distract from the fact that it is a net polluter. Just in 2019, the company admitted to producing 3 million tonnes of plastic packaging per year which amounts to 200,000 bottles a minute.

Dharmesh Shah, policy adviser at the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives and a contributor to the audit, said that the lack of will from the companies, and government regulators, as well as the cost of doing business constituted reasons for increased plastic waste. 

“There is an undeniable link between plastics and climate with several new reports showing the impact of plastic production on climate … plastics cannot be eliminated completely, but the quantity of single-use plastic is way more than we can handle,” Shah told The National.

"There needs to be a cap on plastic production and recycling of waste tackled on an international scale. The kind of cheap plastic used in FMCG has no recycling value, the economies don’t work as the process is expensive,” he said.