70 per cent of branded litter traced to a dozen companies

A dozen companies are responsible for 70 per cent of the branded packaging pollution found on UK beaches and the environment, charity Surfers Against Sewage has said.

Almost 4,000 citizen science volunteers across the UK collected litter along 13,000 miles of coasts, countryside, streets, rivers and green spaces over the past 12 months, producing data for the annual report into packaging pollution by the ocean conservation charity.

The report found that 12 companies, led by Coca-cola, Pepsico and Mcdonalds and including other major drinks and snack brand companies, are responsible for most of the packaging carrying branding.

It also found that nearly half of the reported packaging would be covered by an "allin" deposit return scheme. This would levy a charge that would be paid back to customers when they returned drinks containers for recycling.

Surfersagainstsewageiscalling on the government to introduce an all-in deposit return scheme covering drinks containers of all sizes and materials, not just "on-the-go" smaller plastic bottles and cans.

The charity also insists that companies should take responsibility for harmful pollution and the entire lifecycle of their products, reduce their packaging, and adopt "circular" business models that reuse materials rather than letting them go to waste.

Hugo Tagholm, chief executive of Surfers Against Sewage, said: "Year after year, our citizen science brand audit reveals the same huge companies are responsible for the packaging pollution choking our environment.

"Despite public sustainability commitments, these dirty brands are failing to take meaningful action to stop this harm.

"We cannot stand for this blatant greenwashing any longer. Systemic change is urgently needed to end the pollution swamping the land and ocean.

"Businesses need to take responsibility for their polluting products and transition to models of reduction and reuse.

"Legislation such as an 'allin' deposit scheme needs to be introduced urgently and governments must hold these companies to account."

The volunteers for the survey found 10,843 branded items in total, linked to 264 companies, with 28,727 items recorded overall including both branded and unbranded items.

Tobacco products made up around 15% of all the rubbish found on beaches, and more than a quarter of the unbranded litter was cigarette butts, polluting soil and beaches with single-use plastic and toxic chemicals, the charity said.

The data for the audit came from the charity's million mile clean initiative, which encouraged the public to clean up their local environment to protect oceans, beaches and wildlife and improve people's connection with the outdoors.

To highlight the pollution hitting the environment, Surfers Against Sewage commissioned a 100m by 400m projection of packaging waste stacked up against the White Cliffs of Dover.

Spokespeople for Coca-cola, Mcdonalds and Pepsico all said they were commited to reducing plastic waste.