Report criticises single-use plastic production from major companies

A report by Tearfund has criticised major companies for creating harmful plastic pollution from their production of single-use plastic.

The report, “The Burning Question: Will Companies Reduce Their Plastic Use?”, analyses the plastic packaging footprint of Coca-Cola, Nestlé, PepsiCo, and Unilever, on a country-by-country basis.

The report said: “Global plastic production is still increasing, and is set to double in the next ten to 15 years. The steps being taken by companies and governments are a far cry from the action necessary to tackle a crisis of this magnitude.”

“Coca-Cola made a commitment to collect and recycle the equivalent of one bottle for every bottle sold by 2030, on a country-by-country basis. However, it made no public commitments to reduce its overall or virgin use of plastic, and is also off-track on its collection commitment. However, it has committed to disclose its global plastic footprint annually.”

“PepsiCo made a commitment to reduce the use of virgin plastic in its bottles by 20 per cent by 2025. However, it made no commitment on collection and no public commitments to reduce its overall use of plastic. Pepsi has however committed to disclose its global plastic footprint annually.”

“Nestlé has made no clear public commitments to reduce its overall use of plastics, but has committed to reduce virgin plastic by a third by 2025, and to invest two billion Swiss Francs in moving from virgin plastics to food-grade recycled plastic.”

“It has committed to collect as much plastic as it sells in 12 countries, but has not made the names of any one the 12 countries publicly available. It has however committed to disclose their global plastic footprint annually.”

“Unilever has committed to reduce virgin plastic by 50 per cent and total plastic by a sixth, and has made a commitment to collect at least as much plastic as it sells in each market by 2025, and will disclose its annual global plastic footprint.”

“Companies need to step up the pace and scale of their action to address the plastic pollution crisis.”