Are you the cause of Coca-Cola’s plastic
problem?
Coke’s own head of sustainability thinks so. At the World
Economic Forum this week, she told billionaire conference-goers that
the soda corp won’t stop producing new plastic bottles
because consumers still want them.
This is just the latest in a long history of
Coca-Cola trying to pass the buck to consumers. Nobody
asked for the 3 million tonnes of plastic that Coke admits it
produces every year, or for the unspeakable harm those bottles have
done to our oceans and rivers.
But we are asking Coke for something
now: responsibility. With enough pressure from you, the
company will take meaningful action to tackle the mountain of
plastic it’s created, even if that puts a dent in its precious
profits.
Coca-Cola:
Stop blaming consumers and tackle your plastic
crisis!
A plastic waste audit last year found more Coca-Cola
bottles than any other brand -- whether washed up on beaches,
clogging waterways or littering green spaces. Publicly, Coke
makes a show of supporting charities that are willing to clean up
its mess, but behind the scenes, its lobbyists
reportedly fight against laws that would keep the company from
polluting in the first place.
Coke’s execs know exactly what they need to do to
save our plastic-choked planet:
- commit Coke to an immediate reduction in plastic
use,
- create ambitious targets for reusing and recycling the
bottles Coke produces,
- and support any effort -- including bottle deposit
schemes and more informative labels -- that would result in better
recycling of Coke's “recyclable” products.
What we don’t need is for Coke to
come up with a quick fix on plastic that looks good but creates
environmental impact elsewhere. It’s helped create the harm.
It now needs to help create the
solutions.
But experts say that Coke won’t pledge itself to
transformative change because the solutions to its global plastic
problem cost a lot of money.
So we need your help to force Coca-Cola to
act -- just like when we pushed the European Union to pass
a groundbreaking law banning some of the most harmful single-use
plastics. Or last year, when countless SumOfUs members like
you convinced governments to add plastic to the Basel Convention on
hazardous waste, which helped protect countries from
floods of unwanted plastic garbage.
Together, we can tell Coke’s bosses we don’t need
or want their plastic. Let's challenge them to commit
to tangible steps to reduce their plastic and carbon footprint, and
the transparency needed for proper enforcement.
Coca-Cola:
Nobody wants more plastic bottles. Stop blaming us and clean up your
own mess!
