NGO’s write to WRAP to voice concerns over Coca-Cola’s single-use definition

A group of environmental NGO’s have written to WRAP CEO Marcus Gover criticising Coca-Cola’s advertising campaign for causing confusion over the definition of ‘single-use’.

Representatives from City to Sea, Gallifrey Foundation, GLOBAL 2000, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Everyday Plastic, and Less Plastic have said that Coca-Cola are posing a threat to progress being made on reducing single-use plastic.

The letter said: “We are writing to express our concern about how some members of WRAP’s Plastic Pact are marketing their products.”

“A government report revealed that an estimated 700,000 plastic bottles are littered every single day in the UK. It is no surprise that over the last 18 months, public concerns about plastic pollution has grown considerably and consumers have become more conscious of the impact of their purchasing decisions, particularly in relation to single-use plastic.”

“One of the UK Plastic Pact’s four ‘world-leading targets’ requires members ‘to take action to eliminate problematic of unnecessary single-use packaging items through redesign, innovation, or alternative delivery models’ by 2025.”

“We were therefore deeply disappointed and concerned to see Coca-Cola, one of your most prominent Plastic Pact members, seeking to disrupt consumer understanding of what is meant by ‘single-use’ packaging in its recent advertising campaign.”“It has since defended its use of single-use plastic packaging and shows no commitment to eliminate it anytime soon.”

“We believe Coca-Cola’s recent ‘Round in Circles; advertising campaign sets a dangerous precedent to the industry and poses a real and immediate threat to progress being made on reducing single-use plastic."

“The campaign features a central message that (and we quote Coca-Cola) ‘plastic bottles are only single-use if we throw away rather than recycle’.”

“WRAP’s own Plastics Pact members define problematic plastic as ‘Single-use plastic items where consumption could be avoided through elimination, reuse, or replacement and items that, post-consumption, commonly do not enter recycling and composting systems, or where they do, are not recycled due to their format, composition, or size.”

“The European Union’s Single-Use Directive defines single-use plastic as: “a product that is made wholly or partly from plastic and that is not conceived, designed, or placed on the market to accomplish, within its lifespan, multiple trips or rotations by being returned to a producer for refill or re-used for the same purpose for which it was conceived.”

“For any serious attempt to tackle the problems associated with single-use plastic to be successful, these widely held definitions need to be agreed to and respected.”

“Plastic bottles are now in the top ten most commonly found items in UK beaches and bottles, caps, and lids and the most commonly found items on European beaches and in European rivers.”

“Coca-Cola produces 200,000 bottles a minute, more than a fifth of the world’s PET bottle output. They have been consistently named as the worst plastic polluter in the world and themselves recognise that almost half of the bottles they produce are not recycled.”

“We are sure none of this is new to you, and we hope you share our deeply held concern that Coca-Cola’s redefining of what is single-use sets a precedent to the rest of the drinks industry at a time when we desperately need to maintain progress on single-use plastic reduction.”

“We believe Coca-Cola are undermining WRAP’s important work on eliminating problematic plastics, work that relies on commonly held definitions of ‘single-use’. As a marketing ply it also clearly falls well below WRAP’s values of integrity and honestly that we know you rightly take very seriously.”

“With all this in mind, we are asking you to respond clarifying the UK Plastic Pact’s position and how it will both help protect the accepted definition of the term ‘single-use’ as well as holding its members to account on its goal to eliminate single-use packaging in five years, set clear guidelines for your members about what constitutes single-use given that a shared understanding of this underpins the Plastics Pact, and help us protect this important definition as we look to move forward together in tackling plastic pollution.”

“We stand alongside you and support your bold aim of ensuring that unnecessary single-use plastic packaging will be a thing of the past.”

“We hope you will stand with us today in protecting what we all understand to be ‘single-use plastic’ and take this opportunity to call out Coca-Cola and ask them to reconsider their existing marketing strategy that has the potential to do so much harm.”