Coca-Cola has deliberately hidden the damage its ever increasing plastic packaging does to the environment. Their deceptive advertising and push for recycling as the primary solution can be seen as examples of greenwashing. Many voluntary promises for sustainable change have been made and abandoned. These misleading marketing claims can be seen as part of a wider tactic to distract the public and delay and derail legislation that restricts plastic use. Coca-Cola has lobbied

In response to public pressure concerning plastic pollution, Coca-Cola launched their World Without Waste campaign in 2018. They appeared to accept some responsibility for the waste they produce and announced voluntary pledges for environmental change. In their 2022 business sustainability report, Coca-Cola presented voluntary targets for packaging. These included aiming for 50% recycled content in packaging, selling 25% of their products in reusable packaging, and collectin

Recycling is often proposed as the answer to plastic pollution. In practice, however, recycling is totally failing - both technologically and economically. Most plastic is not recycled (under 9% globally), and even when it is, the process often degrades the material, making it more toxic and limiting its future use. Mechanical recycling, the most common method, involves melting and remolding plastic. This causes the plastic quality to drop with each cycle, ending up in a plas

Coca-Cola has a history of deceptively marketing its products as sustainable. Tactics include campaigns to manipulate consumers and using misleading content in advertising and on packaging. Litter Bugs In the 1950s Coca-Cola, along with other beverage corporations, created the Keep America Beautiful advertising campaign. This campaign pushed the idea that consumers are responsible for litter, promoting community ‘clean-ups’ and deflecting corporate responsibility. In 2024, C

Danone is a French food and drink giant and a major plastic polluter. In September 2022, a coalition of anti-plastic NGOs, including ClientEarth, Surfrider Foundation Europe, and Zero Waste France, issued a legal warning to Danone, in an effort to get the mega corporation to publish statistics about its global plastic pollution. However, this warning was ignored. In January of 2023, the coalition filed a lawsuit against Danone over its failure to comply with French due dilige

Founded in 1919, the French company Danone includes brands Evian, Activia, Actimel, Volvic, Alpro, and more. In 2020, it sold products in 120 countries with global sales reaching 23.6 billion euros, making it one of the world’s top ten largest plastic packaging producers. Danone claims to be committed to producing products that preserve the planet’s resources whilst also growing its business. This article will examine how committed Danone really is to reducing its plastic foo

Coca-Cola has heavily promoted recycling as a solution to the problem of plastic pollution and environmental harm. This has unfairly shifted the burden of responsibility for plastic pollution onto consumers. Coca-Cola can continue to produce large quantities of cheap plastic bottles without any accountability, whilst the public takes the blame for litter. Recycling is a false solution to the plastic problem. Only 9% of plastic has ever been recycled. Many plastics can’t be re

While clothes made of recycled plastic may sound like a good idea, they can cause environmental harm at multiple levels. First, recycled polyester used to produce textiles comes mostly from plastic bottles rather than from textile waste. This means that recyclable plastic bottles get downcycled into clothes, which cannot be further recycled and instead end in landfill or incinerators. The second problem is the greenwashing of plastic-made garments by the fashion industry. Cur

The Coca-Cola Company is a multinational beverage corporation. In 2022, Coca-Cola produced 134 billion single-use plastic bottles and were responsible for around one in five of the world’s PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) plastic bottles. It is the top plastic producing company in the world, with a plastic footprint of 3.45 million tonnes, estimated to increase to 4.13 tons by 2030. Since 2018, Break Free From Plastic (BFFP) member organizations and supporters have contribut

Plastic pollutes our land and our oceans, disturbing wildlife and ecosystems. Microplastics have been found throughout the human body and have unknown health effects. Almost all plastics are produced from chemicals sourced from fossil fuels, with production contributing to climate change. Worryingly, plastic production is growing exponentially, approximately doubling every decade. Much of this is single-use plastic. Corporate Responsibility Profit-driven corporations are lar