Lillianna Byington reports for WasteDive
Coca Cola’s Head of Sustainability Bea Perez told the BBC that consumers like plastic-packaged drinks because they’re able to reseal the beverages in lightweight packaging.
She also said that getting rid of plastic altogether and using only aluminum and glass packaging could push up the company’s carbon footprint and hurt sales.
“Business won’t be in business if we don’t accommodate consumers,” she said. “So as we change our bottling infrastructure, move into recycling and innovate, we also have to show the consumer what the opportunities are. They will change with us.”
As many companies rush to meet promises to replace their plastic packaging, Coca-Cola is not among them.
The company has made sustainability pledges in recent years, but it’s not trying to get rid of plastic. Coca-Cola has announced goals for its packaging to be 100% recyclable by 2025, and to make bottles with an average of 50% recycled material by 2030. Greenpeace has been critical of Coca Cola’s current plan, saying it doesn’t address the urgency of plastic pollution.
Coca-Cola spokeswoman Ann Moore said in an email to Food Dive that packaging waste is a major problem, and Coke recognizes that it has a responsibility to help solve it, but “all packaging has a potential environmental impact, so it’s not as simple as saying one format is better than another.”
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Coca-Cola has been criticized heavily for its plastic usage before, and Perez’s comments are likely to only fuel critics’ ire. They have already elicited negative reaction.
“Shame on Coca Cola yet again hiding behind the public instead of taking responsibility for the 120 billion plastic Coke bottles that pollute our planet every year,” Sian Sutherland, co-founder of A Plastic Planet, told Food Dive in an email. “People buy what they are sold and it is Coca Cola’s job to sell them something different — toxic-free and nature safe.”
Coke’s sustainability head’s comments contradict with other reports claiming consumers are driving the demand for more alternatives to plastic packaging. And the beverage giant has been recognized as a leading cause of plastic pollution. In 2019, Coke was found to be the most polluting brand for the second year in a row in a global audit of plastic waste by a Break Free from Plastic study. Nestlé was No. 2, followed by PepsiCo.
Coca-Cola, which reportedly produces 3 million tons of plastic packaging annually, has made more sustainable moves in recent years. In 2018, Coca-Cola extended a loan to the Netherlands-based recycling company Ioniqa Technologies to develop the tools to process otherwise hard-to-recycle types of PET plastics.
Last year, Coca-Cola said it is updating packaging for the Dasani water brand to help reduce plastic waste, and will ensure all Dasani bottles continue to be fully recyclable. A 20-ounce HybridBottle will launch nationwide in mid-2020 made with up to 50% plant-based renewable and recycled PET plastic, and aluminum cans for the brand will expand to the rest of the country this year, the company said.
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