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

Here in the UK, 9.25 million tonnes of plastic waste leaves our dockyards and heads to developing countries. Why do we ship it off? Because the UK government wants to offload the responsibility of processing our plastic waste. However, this comes at the significant detriment of importing countries’ economies, environments, and health. For three decades, China imported over 70% of the world’s plastic waste, but that all changed in 2018. In the eight years since China banned th

Single-use soft plastics, such as sachets and crisp packets, are produced on a massive scale but are nearly impossible to recycle. Inadequate investment in waste management results in these plastics ending up in rivers, oceans, streets, and backyards across the world. The trouble with sachets… Soft plastics - defined as flexible plastic materials that do not hold a specific shape - are produced from natural gas or fossil fuels that are extracted from shale (a rock composed of

Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) are designed to incentivise recycling and reduce litter by assigning monetary value to drinks containers. Hailing from an era when soft drinks, milk and beer companies collected, washed and refilled glass bottles, DRS are now tackling modern waste issues. However, DRS alone doesn't address the key issues: overproduction of single-use plastics. Extended Producer Responsibility Whilst DRS is often discussed separately, it is in fact a form of Extend