User:Benrthorne/sandbox

Single- use plastics have become a huge part of the consumer world. These plastic shave become huge polluters to the Earth, which has become an overwhelming issue. Most brand companies still continue to use single-use products because they are fast and easy to make. Coca-Cola brand (owner of other brands like Powerade, Smart Water, Minute Maid) is the worlds largest polluter. In a 2020 global clean up project, Coca-Cola was 40% of the plastics cleaned up. Meaning, when cleaning up trash from cities, beaches, and other parts of nature, Coca- Cola branded plastics will be the most common found.

In the 2020 Brand Audit Report, about 14,000 volunteers cleaned up over 340,000 pieces of plastic waste over 55 countries. 40% of the plastic waste with clean Branding on it was from Coca-Cola brand, resulting in 11,732 pieces of plastic waste. Coca- Cola Brand responded to these statistics in an interview by saying, “Any time our packaging ends up in our oceans — or anywhere that it doesn’t belong — is unacceptable to us. In partnership with others, we are working to address this critical global issue, both to help turn off the tap in terms of plastic waste entering our oceans and to help clean up the existing pollution.” The company also stated that they would investigate in different markets on ways to help collect their bottles and cans in a more effectively. In Vietnam, Coca-Cola announced a recovery program to collect their plastic packaging. Also, in the Philippines, the brand invested $19 million on a bottler in a new food grade recycling facility.

Coca-Cola's efforts to help was criticized that it wasn't enough to help the brand not become the top global polluter. Many think Coca-Cola and other big brands should switch the material their bottles and packaging is made out of rather than helping with the clean up or recycling. In The United States, 91% of plastics that is recycled doesn't end up actually being recycled. Meaning, all of that plastic is sent to the dumpster.