The world's biggest plastic polluters: Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Unilever and Nestlé

This year's "Branded" report is based on 440 brand audits by the Break Free From Plastic movement, of which Greenpeace is a member. As part of this, more than 11,000 volunteers in 45 countries collected 330,493 pieces of plastic waste, mainly discarded single-use packaging, from beaches and lakeshores and assigned them to brand manufacturers.
The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo are the world's biggest plastic polluters for the fourth year in a row, according to "Branded," Greenpeace writes. Volunteers found nearly 20,000 pieces of plastic waste from Coca-Cola products this year - more than from the next two biggest polluters combined. This suggests that Coca-Cola's promise to collect one bottle for every one sold has little impact on the company's plastic pollution, it said.

COP26 sponsor Unilever in third place

For the first time since global brand audits began in 2018, Unilever is among the top three polluters, according to the release - despite serving as a key partner at the UN's COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. Considering that 99 percent of plastic is made from fossil fuels and oil companies are actively shifting their focus to plastic as an increasing source of revenue, Unilever's role at COP26 is particularly cynical, the environmental organization said.
With over 6,000 products collected, Unilever even overtakes Swiss food giant Nestlé. According to the evaluation, Nestlé is in inglorious fourth place this year. Nestlé must therefore urgently reduce its plastic footprint and consistently switch from single-use packaging to reusable solutions, Greenpeace demands.

Plastic packaging exacerbates the climate crisis

Ahead of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, this year's Brand Audit shed light on how the plastics industry is fueling the climate crisis, i.e. how consumer goods multinationals such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Unilever would drive the expansion of plastic production by the oil industry.
Nearly 300 organizations from 76 countries have submitted a open letter signed to delegates at COP26 calling for a shift away from fossil fuel extraction and plastic production and investment in zero-waste alternatives.
"Despite their promises to do better, the same polluters show up in brand audits year after year. These companies claim to be fighting the plastic crisis, but continue to invest in false solutions and partner with oil companies to produce even more plastic. To end the plastic crisis and fight climate change, corporations like Nestlé and Coca-Cola must end their reliance on single-use plastic packaging and move away from petroleum products," says Matthias Wüthrich, Zero Waste expert at Greenpeace Switzerland.
Recent studies have shown that the largest companies responsible for the plastic pollution crisis are also contributing to the climate crisis, it is further reported. Consumer goods companies such as Nestlé, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Mondelēz, Danone, Unilever, Colgate Palmolive, Procter & Gamble and Mars would all contribute to the Greenpeace report. "Climate crisis unpacked: how consumer goods companies are fueling oil companies' plastic expansion" According to the company, all packaging is purchased from manufacturers supplied with plastic resins by well-known petrochemical companies such as Exxon, Total, Aramco and Shell.

Source: Greenpeace

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