Greenpeace
The sculpture erected by Greenpeace outside Coca-Cola UK. The organisation is calling on the drinks giant to accept its responsibility when it comes to preventing further ocean waste. Image: twitter.com/greenpeaceUK
Environmental organisation, Greenpeace, has issued a new report in which it says Cola-Cola is failing on its promise to use recycled content in its plastic bottles.
The report accuses Coca-Cola of “failing to substantially increase” the amount of recycled materials it uses to make its own bottles globally and points to “slow progress” by the soft drinks giant to adhere to its own targets.
Examples of this, says Greenpeace, is Coca-Cola getting less than halfway towards its 2015 target of sourcing 25 percent of its plastics bottles from recycled or renewable content, managing 12.4 percent.
Additionally, it points to Coca-Cola’s goal by 2020 to recover and recycle the equivalent of 75 percent of the bottles and cans it sells in developed countries; a goal it says the drinks giant is “backsliding on”, with the percentage decreasing between 2013 and 2015.
Greenpeace produced the report to urge Coca-Cola, as the world’s biggest soft drinks company, to accept its responsibility for the throwaway plastic used in its products in order to tackle the problem of ocean waste.
The organisation is now calling for Coca-Cola to fully commit to rapidly phasing out the use of single-use plastic bottles by following three steps.
Firstly, it says Coca-Cola must prioritise reusable plastic packaging and develop delivery systems based on reuse.
Secondly, it says Coca-Cola must ensure all remaining plastic packaging is made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled content, as well as being recyclable or compostable.
Thirdly, it says the drinks giant must disclose the types and amount of plastics it is using, reusing and recycling, so that progress can be measured.
In order to highlight the report, Greenpeace has today (April 10.) erected a sculpture made from 2.5 tonnes worth of recovered plastic ocean waste outside Coca-Cola’s headquarters in the UK.