Pollution hell that shames JOHN INGHAM the food and drink giants
Environment Editor
FOUR of the world’s biggest food and drink producers were yesterday accused of fuelling climate change and damaging health through plastic packaging.
Coca-Cola, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever were said to be responsible for half a million tons of packaging that is burned or dumped each year in just six developing countries.
International development agency Tearfund said the plastic that is burned pumps out emissions equivalent to 4.6 million tons of CO2 a year – the same as two million cars on UK roads.
It said the worst offenders are Coca-Cola, which is blamed for 200,000 tons of plastic pollution – or about eight billion bottles – and its rival PepsiCo, with 137,000 tons.
Recycled
The study covers only six countries, Brazil, Nigeria, Mexico, India, China and the Philippines, raising concerns about the true global scale of the firms’ plastic pollution.
Last year a Tearfund report backed by Sir David Attenborough found that up to a million people die each year in developing countries from illness and disease caused by mismanaged plastic and waste.
The latest report, The Burning Question, is part of a Tearfund campaign to get the big four firms to halve the volume of single-use plastic products by 2025 in developing countries and ensure that they are all recycled by 2022.
Dr Ruth Valerio, director of global advocacy and influencing at
Tearfund, said: “These companies are selling plastic in the full knowledge that it will be burned or dumped in developing countries: scarring landscapes, contributing to climate change and harming the health of the world’s poorest people.”
In some countries, waste pickers scour dumps for plastic from which they can make a small profit, endangering their health and their lives.
Dr Valerio added: “At present, Coca-Cola, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever make little or no mention of emissions from the disposal of their products or packaging in their climate change commitments. These
Coca-Cola is said to be among the worst offenders for producing plastic waste that is either burned or dumped, where it can be targeted by plastic pickers on dumps, right
companies have a moral responsibility for the disposal of the products they continue to pump into developing countries without proper waste management.”
The firms insist they are working to reduce their plastic footprint and boost recycling, and backing this with large scale investments.
A Coca-Cola spokesman said: “We are absolutely committed to ensuring the packaging in which we serve our products is sustainable.
“As part of a number of global commitments, we have committed to getting every bottle back for each one sold by 2030.
“The aim is to ensure that every plastic bottle contains at least 50 per cent recycled plastic by 2030.
“We believe that plastic still has a role to play as a valuable resource which can be used again and again. However, we’re also focused on removing plastic wherever possible and increasing our use of returnable and refillable packaging.”
A Nestlé statement said: “Nestlé is determined to… solve the complex challenges of packaging waste. We embrace multiple solutions that can have an impact now for our consumers and communities.
“Our vision is that none of our packaging, including plastics, ends up in landfill nor and rivers.
“To achieve this, we have set ourselves the commitment to make 100 per cent of our packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025.”
A Unilever spokesman said: “We believe plastic has its place in delivering products safely and efficiently to consumers around the world.
“But the place for plastic is not in the environment.
“Our plastic is our responsibility and that’s why we are taking radical action at all points in the loop. in oceans, lakes
Committed
“Plastic reduction is a critical part of the solution and so we’ve committed to halve our use of virgin plastic in our packaging in just five years. This demands a fundamental rethink in our approach to packaging and products.
“Also, we are piloting different reuse and refill formats across the world, so we can test, learn and scale these solutions.”
A PepsiCo spokesman said: “Changing the way society makes, uses, and disposes of packaging is important and requires pulling a lot of levers.
“At PepsiCo, we want to help build a system where packaging never becomes waste.”