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Study confirms Altria, Philip Morris International, Danone, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are worst offenders

Fewer than 60 multinationals are responsible for more than half of the world’s plastic pollution, with six responsible for a quarter of that, based on the findings of a piece of research published on Wednesday.

The researchers concluded that for every percentage increase in plastic produced, there was an equivalent increase in plastic pollution in the environment.

“Production really is pollution,” says one of the study’s authors, Lisa Erdle, director of science at the non-profit The 5 Gyres Institute.

An international team of volunteers collected and surveyed more than 1,870,000 items of plastic waste across 84 countries over five years: the bulk of the rubbish collected was single-use packaging for food, beverage, and tobacco products.

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 8 months ago (2 children)

The top five brands globally were The Coca-Cola Company (11%), PepsiCo (5%), Nestlé (3%), Danone (3%), and Altria (2%), accounting for 24% of the total branded count

I would’ve expected a slightly different order, but those companies also control about 24% of the food we buy, so… not surprising.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Really? That's exactly the order I would have expected.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I would have thought Nestle to be higher. They are massive pieces of shit that poison children, after all. I figured they'd be putting plastic in the ocean on purpose like a Captain Planet antagonist.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

PepsiCo is bigger than Coke, for one

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

PepsiCo owns Lays, which makes dry food. Coca-Cola mostly stays with beverages these days.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Sure, but some of that food is in plastic containers. Pepsi owns a shit ton of brands. By revenue, they are twice as big as Coke

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I'd say the facts speak for themselves.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Then it makes them four times more ecological in a way, if that's even applicable to a company producing that much pollution

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I expected McDonald's to be up there.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Maccies has had paper cups, fry holders and wrappers for at least two decades, and now everything used within the, er, "restaurant" is reusable

Is it different where you are?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

They still use plastic straws in some places, and paper cups contain plastic, but yeah they don't seem to produce so much of (plastic) waste

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Definitely plastic cups but paper straws for some reason

[–] [email protected] 24 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Think the unthinkable- what if we not only still sold most of our beverages in recyclable glass bottles, what if we also offered money to recycle them?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Aluminum is theoretically recyclable an unlimited number of times, so the cans are much less of an issue.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

My point is aluminum and glass are much better than plastic.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago

I think one or the draw backs with aluminium cans though is they still have that plastic lining inside?

Coke cans and most pop for example still have plastic inside. Canada even recently made a paper wine bottle, but believe it or not, plastic bag inside a paper bottle.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago

Hey, make sure you guys don't use plastic straws anymore, and turn the water off when you're lathering up in the shower. 🙄

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago

*branded plastic pollution

Most plastic pollution is not branded.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago

I always bring my refillable Nalgenes, Stanleys, Yetis, Corksicles, and Hydro Flasks to the Coke headquarters to fill up my family's monthly allotment of soda. Take that, Big Plastic!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

About 10-12 years back i went to Dominican (outside of resort's). It was eye opening in a sense, though what shocked me then was the amount of empty 2L bottle everywhere, it was insane.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The largest number of discarded coke bottles I've ever seen in my life was on a camel trip through the Sahara 🥺

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

No, most of the time you couldn't see the coke bottles for the discarded shopping bags 😥

Morocco is a beautiful country, but the inhabitants treat it like a giant fuckin dustbin. It's absolutely disgusting

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (2 children)

That's sort of like saying one species is responsible for the overwhelming amount of pollution. It makes it seem like there's an easily identifiable culprit, but you're talking about 60 firms involved in like... everything you use and interact with every day.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

It's pretty clear that as these and the rest of the companies decide what products and services are available, their marketing ploy to shift responsibility to consumer choice doesn't hold water

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

It's also saying that in theory of we can make these few companies to change their way we can make a very big difference, and also saying that in practice these behemoths wil fight any change tooth and nail and use their oversized political influence to do so.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

The two tobacco companies Altria and Philip Morris International combined made up 2% of the branded plastic litter found, both Danone and Nestlé each produced 3% of it, PepsiCo was responsible for 5% of the discarded packaging, and 11% of branded plastic waste could be traced to the Coca-Cola company.

I would have thought Nestle would be far higher considering how many other brands it owns and how widespread its products are.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

When traveling I've found that I can buy and refill aluminum water bottles.

Like this: https://www.mananalu.com/

And this: https://www.amazon.com/RAIN-Plastic-Free-Recyclable-Friendly-Aluminum/dp/B08Y946G7Z/ref=asc_df_B08Y946G7Z?tag=bngsmtphsnus-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80882941400087&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=m&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584482469946349&psc=1

More than once now I've found water in an aluminium bottle at a grocery store while traveling. Buy one and refill. Works great and less to pack.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Great, can we please finally jail those in charge? Can we then sue those companies for all they're worth so that we can use that money to clean up said plastic?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

that's how economies of scale work. unless the majority of the population (globally) boycotts all of those companies and their subsidiaries, which isnt going to happen, nothing will change.

someone else just needs to start a business model around cleaning up plastic pollution - it's certainly never going to go away on its own.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

That's because they are the only people that own 50% + of the market.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Remember its your straw that killed all the turtles tho.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago