Guess Which Company Was Just Crowned The World's Biggest Plastic Polluter (Again)

[Judi Lynn]

PETER DOCKRILL
30 OCT 2019

On one day in September, people from over 50 countries decided to do something about our plastic problem.

Together, they picked up almost half a million pieces of plastic garbage littering the planet. Over 40 percent of this mountain of trash was still clearly identifiable by brand, and one producer's trash in particular was picked up much more than any other: Coca-Cola.

An audit of the 476,423 pieces of plastic waste picked up by over 70,000 volunteers on World Clean Up Day suggests that Coca-Cola is the world's biggest plastic polluter, responsible for 11,732 of the pieces of plastic trash retrieved during the global event.

That's a lot of strewn plastic waste produced by just one company - more than double the amount from the global runner-up (Nestlé, 4,846 pieces), then Pepsi (3,362), with Mondelēz, Unilever, and Mars being among others making up the rest of the top 10.

More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/guess-who-was-just-crowned-the-world-s-biggest-plastic-polluter-again

[abqtommy]

1. I remember when all soft drinks were sold in glass bottles and how plastic bottles were touted

as an improvement. But trash is trash and it's up to people to solve people problems that trash brings
to all the world's creatures. How about it? Is there a solution or should I put on my pearls so that I can clutch them while I recline on my fainting couch? ok, snark off

As far as glass and plastic bottle deposits that have helped reduce bottle litter, only 11 US states
have used or are using this type of recycling law. That shows that there's not much demand for
recycling on the one hand while we decry plastics pollution with the other hand. Meanwhile, plastic
pollution is much more than plastic Coke tm bottles. The plastics genie is out of the bottle, figuratively,
and it's up to people to put it back, figuratively, and clean up this mess. Are we able and willing? Maybe, maybe not. Time will tell.