Coca Cola and Pepsi, along with other big plastic polluters, have followed the lead of Nestle in implying a lie to make them look better. Nestle says that their water bottles are 1oo per cent recyclable but fails to mention that almost none is recycled because it is cheaper to make new ones. Coca Cola and Pepsi et al have the slogan “Every Bottle Back” which implies they will get every bottle back and recycle, also not true.
Coca Cola has partnered with the non-profit Ocean Cleanup, which has a somewhat checkered history. Be sure to see this link which explains some of the problems.
Following are excerpts from this article on Ocean Cleanup which criticizes this organization which receives and spends millions in donations but wastes the money by simply picking up garbage instead of hitting the sources.
“They [Ocean Cleanup] spent I don’t know how many tens of millions of dollars to invent fishing,” said Miriam Goldstein, the director of ocean policy at the Center for American Progress, who holds a Ph.D. in biological oceanography.
Rebecca Helm, a jellyfish expert and an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Asheville, pointed out that other organizations have successfully removed tens of thousands of pounds of plastic from garbage patches using more manual (albeit less flashy) methods that don’t disturb ecosystems.
“Cleaning the Garbage Patches is like trying to heal a wound by cleaning blood off the floor,” said Helm. “Plastic is hemorrhaging from land, from fishing gear disposal, container spills, these are the issues we need to fight. Otherwise, we’ll be cleaning forever, while the world keeps bleeding out.”
This is exactly the problem we face in Florida with our state agencies, which spend hundreds of millions treating symptoms but ignoring the main polluters and water users. As Helm says above, we will be treating forever while the water keeps bleeding out and getting more and more polluted.
There is a special level of frustration caused by agencies or organizations which supposedly exist to fix our water problems but which waste time and money treating symptoms. We see that totally in Florida with our DEP and WMDs.
The public must be made aware that industry and polluters take precedence over conserving our springs, rivers and aquifer and that our state agencies are failing us.
Read the complete article here at this link.
Thanks to Bill Basta for this link.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum
If plastic was a country, it would be the world’s fifth-largest greenhouse gas emitter. And the industry’s footprint could grow further, doubling by 2040.
Consumer corporations are driving this crisis. Many have worked behind the scenes and hand-in-hand with fossil fuel companies to defeat initiatives that would have held them responsible for their waste. Instead, they continue to perpetuate false solutions. Given that plastics last so long that they exist outside of the human perception of time, what these companies are producing now will stick around on the planet long after they’re gone.
It can be difficult to get a handle on which corporations are responsible for what plastic pollution; some companies disclose some information about how much they produce, while others are black boxes. There are almost no government mandates for companies to report or clean up their branded trash anywhere in the world. But accountability is the first step to stopping the cycle of plastic overproduction.
The recently released annual brand audit from Break Free From Plastic, an international organization that seeks to form a movement to end plastic production and use, has helped identify the biggest plastic miscreants. To perform the audit, Break Free From Plastic used more than 11,000 volunteers in 45 countries to sort through plastic trash during cleanup or collection efforts, logging the brands they found in the 330,493 pieces of trash collected to get a representative sense of just whose plastic is clogging the world. Here are some of the most common polluters they found. (Earther reached out to each polluter and have included comments if they responded.)
[Pepsi]
Even though Coca-Cola’s numbers are astronomical, that doesn’t mean competitor PepsiCo is a saint. The company came in second for its prolific plastic pollution. Pepsi-branded plastic, which includes beverage bottles as well as packaging from brands Pepsi owns like Lay’s and Doritos, appeared in 35 of the countries audited. One Greenpeace estimate put Pepsi’s plastic use at more than 2.5 million tons each year. It and Coca-Cola have been the top two polluters each year that Break Free From Plastic has conducted its analysis.
[Unilever]
It’s not just purveyors of sugary beverages fouling up the planet. Consumer giant Unilever rounds out Break Free From Plastic’s top three, moving up two spots from the 2020 report. More than 6,000 pieces of Unilever-branded plastic were logged in 30 countries by the group’s volunteers.
Unilever’s products are everywhere. Among the brands it owns are Dove and Helmann’s. More depressingly, the company’s portfolio also includes brands that have an eco-friendly sheen like Ben and Jerry’s and Seventh Generation. Even more depressingly, Unilever was also a primary sponsor of the United Nations climate meeting in Glasgow.
“Unilever is fully committed to keeping plastic out of the environment,” a spokesperson said in an email. “From developing innovative ways to reduce the amount of plastic we use, such as scaling reusable and refillable formats, to creating new packaging innovations, we are determined to tackle the causes of plastic waste.”
[Nestlé]
Food giant Nestlé comes in fourth, with more than 4,000 pieces of plastic recovered in 30 countries. The company disclosed in a 2019 report with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation that it produced more than 1.8 million tons of plastic each year.
These giant consumer goods companies aren’t acting in a vacuum: Plastic is a petrochemical product, and Big Oil isn’t missing a chance to cash in on all this demand. A report issued by Greenpeace this year examined the supply chains of the world’s most prolific plastic producers, finding that nearly every company on Break Free from Plastic’s top 10 list purchase plastics from suppliers who buy their stock from major oil companies.
As an example, Nestlé (along with Coca-Cola and Pepsi) purchases some of its plastic from a Thai company called Indorama, which buys its supplies from companies like Chevron, ExxonMobil, Phillips, and Shell. Indorama has claimed that 1 in 5 bottles in the world made of polyethylene terephthalate, or PET—a plastic commonly used for bottled water and soft drinks—are made with its plastics.
In an emailed statement, a Nestlé spokesperson provided links to the company’s efforts to tackle plastic waste and create reusable products. “We need to work together and are also engaging consumers in our efforts,” the email said. “We are finding ways to fundamentally change the way consumers receive and enjoy our products.”
[Procter & Gamble]
[Mondelez]
[Danone]
Paris-based Danone comes in eighth on the report; volunteers logged 3,223 pieces of plastic in 25 countries from Danone brands. Among its products encased in plastic, the company sells Silk milk alternatives, Dannon yogurt, Evian, and a slew of other bottled water brands.
Part of the issue with reporting on plastic waste is transparency: While some companies on this list disclose how much plastic they use, others stay mum. Danone is one that has come clean about how much it produces—and it’s a lot. In 2019, Danone said in a report with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation that it produces more than 826,000 tons of plastic each year.
[Mars]
Mars, which owns brands like M&Ms, Wrigley’s gum, and Snickers, came in ninth on the report; volunteers found nearly 1,000 pieces of plastic in 24 countries.
The company recently committed to lowering its carbon emissions to net zero, a term that’s become commonplace in the corporate world. The idea is that companies will reduce emissions and offset whatever they can’t. A Mars spokesperson said its “commitment does include packaging production as well as end of life of packaging.” But net zero emissions isn’t necessarily a substitute for actual zero. Offsetting plastic emissions also doesn’t necessarily mean reducing waste to zero either.
[Colgate-Palmolive]
Rounding out the top 10 is consumer products giant Colgate-Palmolive; volunteers picked up 941 pieces of branded trash in 22 countries. Last year, with a bigger cohort of volunteers that picked up 5,991 pieces of Colgate-Palmolive-branded trash, the company still only ranked ninth on the list. So, uh, good job I guess?
The company’s brands include Colgate and Palmolive, of course, as well as Ajax and pet food company Science Diet. Tom’s of Maine, another seemingly Earth-friendly brand, is on the list, too.
