Coca-Cola is now known to be the biggest plastic polluter in the world

A one day clean up was organised to see which company had the most waste. And out of 475,000 plastics, 11,732 were found to be Coca-Cola bottles.

Coca-Cola, the most popular soda brand is named as the largest plastic polluter in the world. The audit that was conducted discovered that soda company contributes to more plastic litter than anyone else in the world. Leaked documents also show that Coke had tried to shut down the deposit and refund scheme on plastic bottles to increase its profits.

The global movement Break Free From Plastics who conducted the audit searched through beaches, waterways, and streets around the world to search for plastic bottles, cups, wrappers, bags, and scraps. It is reported that 475,000 pieces of waste were collected and out of which  11,732 of it belonged to Coca-Cola. Following Coca-Cola, the next biggest contributors were Nestle, PepsiCo, Mondelez International.

Most plastic waste in Africa and Europe also belonged to Coca-Cola, while they rank second in Asia and South America. Whereas Nestle was the biggest in North America followed by a Solo Company that manufacturers red cups, followed by Starbucks. A global coordinator of the Break Free From Plastic movement, Von Hernandez, in a statement said, “This report provides more evidence that corporations urgently need to do more to address the plastic pollution crisis they’ve created. Their continued reliance on single-use plastic packaging translates to pumping more throwaway plastic into the environment. Recycling is not going to solve this problem.”

Coca-Cola on being contacted about the audit, which responded in an email statement that stated, “Any time 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.”