Coca Cola comes clean about the 3.3 million tones of brand new packaging it produces each year. This adds up to 200,000 new bottled every minute.
Think about this! Coca Cola has admitted to generating 3.3 million tones of NEW packaging per year.
When discussing the problem of single use and plastic packaging we are used to some pretty staggering statistics.
As we know private industries are the main contributors, however they simply feed the demand from consumers.
With our oceans now becoming waste disposal sites for plastic packaging manufacturers and petrochemical producers its easy to see how profit has been prioritised over the long term health of our planet.
What is not surprising is that one of the largest producers Coca Cola corporation has disclosed that it generates a phenomenal 3.3 million tons of packaging per year.
This works out at about 200,000 new bottles every minute. Take that in for a second!
Its been a bit of battle to get them to come clean. They have declined on request for the numbers already but it was the Ellen MacArthur foundation that finally got them to release the statistics.
The foundation has been campaigning vigorously alongside the United Nations to get large plastic producing corporations to get their act together and make a commitment to eliminate surplus plastic packaging by 2025.
Of course it is not just Coca Cola. There report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation points out many companies producing excess packaging for liquids and solids. Mars, Kellogg’s and Unilever are all on there.
These companies however have all made the same commitment to disclose their plastic packaging statistics in the near future.
It is predicted that the combined total between these companies could reach over 8 million tons of plastic packaging annually.
It is worth noting that the exact numbers on plastic packaging are not stated as the report as it does not break production down buy material. This means other materials contribute to the excess like alu foil packaging and glass.
Coca Cola has revealed that the volume is equal to 108 PET plastic bottles each year. This means they are producing about a fifth of the worlds PET bottle production. About 500 billion.
The Foundation has called for innovation from large corporate producers to ensure that all packaging can be easily recycled & reused by the 2025 target year.
It also encourages the creation of a circular economy, something we are hearing more and more.
