COP27 sponsor Coca-Cola is the world's biggest plastic polluter (2024)

And the winner is... Coca-Cola. The famous soda brand is rated 2022 "world champion" in the Top 10CorporatePlasticPolluters, according to the brand audit published on Tuesday, November 15, by the NGO Break Free From Plastic. An unenviable title that the US corporation won hands down for the fifth year in a row since the study's launch in 2018. Quite the problematic distinction as Coca-Cola acts as one of the sponsors of the United Nations Climate Conference (COP27), the key event in the fight against climate change, taking place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, until November 18. "Coca-Cola sponsoring COP27 is pure 'greenwash'," denounced Emma Priestland, a coordinator for Break Free From Plastic.

Every year the NGO – which brings together several thousand associations – sends its volunteers to the four corners of the world to collect plastic waste produced by industry, which ends up everywhere (beaches, rivers, parks, forests, streets...) but in the garbage where it belongs. Their not always obvious mission: To identify the name brands behind this garbage accumulation.

In 2022 more than 31,000 products branded Coca-Cola were found in about 40 countries. This is more than twice as many as in 2021 (13,834) and three times as many as in 2018 (9,300), representing 7.32% of all plastic waste collected (429,994) in 2022. This proportion has doubled since the first report in 2018 when it was 3.64% (9,300 items out of a total of 255,429 pieces of trash). In five years, Break Free From Plastic volunteers have collected 85,035 of the American company's products, almost as much as all the waste from the other two brands on the podium of biggest plastic polluters – PepsiCo (50,558) and Nestlé (27,008).

"It's astounding that a company so tied to the fossil fuel industry is allowed to sponsor such a vital climate meeting," said Ms. Priestland. Some 99% of plastic is made from fossil fuels, and packaging is a major outlet for the petrochemical industry. Each year, more than 100 billion plastic bottles leave the multinational's plants. According to Greenpeace estimates, the production of these bottles accounts for nearly 15 million tons of CO₂ emissions – equivalent to the emissions of 3 million cars for one year. "Coca-Cola produces 120bn throwaway plastic bottles a year – and 99% of plastics are made from fossil fuels, worsening both the plastic and climate crisis," commented John Hocevar, Oceans Campaign Director at Greenpeace USA, who also said he is "baffled" by the partnership between COP27 and the soda brand.

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